The Union of Students in Ireland has welcomed reports that the abolition of part-time fees is to be considered by a Government's Expert Group on Future Skills Needs.

As first reported in The Irish Times, one of the group's tasks will be to investigate whether the abolition of fees for modular and part-time courses would increase the low level of participation by mature students at third level. The Union said such a move would only cost £10 million: its president, Philip Madden, said it should be an "essential part" of the strategy to give incentives to re-skill.

"The distinction between part-time and full-time courses is, in many cases, meaningless. For example, a student on the BA modular course in UCD may have up to 12 hours' lectures per week. "This is essentially the same number of hours of attendance as many full-time arts students ... is this part-time study?," he said.