The return of third-level fees will be recommended by the OECD in its forthcoming report on higher education.
The report, the most comprehensive review of third-level education in a generation, says that the current "free fees" scheme should be abolished.
Last night the head of the OECD review, Mr Abrar Hasan, said he would not comment on the specifics of the report. But some details, he said, would be made available tomorrow.
The OECD finding is set to reopen the debate on financing of higher education. The Government maintains that the fees issue is off the agenda "for the foreseeable future". But the OECD report makes it clear that Irish third-level colleges face a funding crisis. It says they urgently require new funding if they are to compete on level terms with other states.
The report was commissioned by the Minister, Mr Dempsey, 13 months ago. Last year the Minister failed to win the support of Government colleagues for a series of proposals which would have seen fees of about €4,000 per year for arts and business courses and about €6,000 for subjects such as medicine, law and veterinary courses.
It is understood the OECD report draws heavily on the economic review of the Republic, conducted by the Paris-based organisation last year. The economic review said the free-fees scheme was "questionable on both equity and efficiency grounds".
Several OECD countries have successfully targeted support for higher education through fees, student loans and grant schemes which include provision for the less well off, it noted.
The forthcoming third-level review details how some of these "study now, pay later" schemes operate, but it says it is up to Government to decide which, if any, would work best in the Republic.
The report says that those students who can afford it should be asked to pay college fees. It recommends extensive means-testing to ensure that those from a poorer background are exempt.
It also wants reform of the grant scheme and refers with approval to the de Buitléir report a decade ago. This exposed widespread abuse of the higher education grant system, revealing how the children of wealthy landowners were able to secure university grants.
The Government has said a state-of-the-art third-level sector will be the platform for the State's development into a "knowledge economy". However, the report signals that this may be unrealistic unless the current funding crisis is addressed.
In other areas, the report is set to propose:
r New moves to make the third-level sector less dependent on the Exchequer, including closer links with business and industry.
r Greater freedom for the institutes of technology sector (IOTs), currently managed by the Department of Education.
The review team also includes Mr John Dawkins, former finance and education minister in Australia; Mr Michael Shattock, editor of the journal, Higher Education Management and Policy; and Mr Marshall Smith, a former undersecretary in the US Department of Education.
