The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has decided to defer a vote on how the education system should be funded to allow for further consultation with its members.
Delegates attending the annual USI conference this week in Ballinasloe, Co Galway had been due to vote on the topic today.
Five models - a graduate tax, full exchequer funding, full up-front tuition fees, a student contribution model (as is the case at present) or a student loan scheme – are being considered but delegates last night decided to further consult with their student bodies before a position is taken.
Free fees has long been a USI policy but union president Gary Redmond and others argued to congress that a graduate tax was more equitable funding system as it would not prevent those unable to afford to pay the existing student contribution from entering third level in the first place.
“A graduate tax is based on their means and not those of their parents,” he said.
Talk on the fringes of the congress suggests that morale on college campuses across the State is being hit by uncertainty about fees and funding as well as the prospects awaiting graduates.
“Morale on individual campuses isn't good at all,” Mr Redmond said.
“We have a situation where final year students are not only preparing for exams but also facing up to the fact they may have to emigrate to get work...We're educating people for export to rival economies.”
Those attending the conference have also voted in favour of campaigning to have the Croke Park agreement on public sector pay renegotiated.
“Up to 80 per cent of college funding is being spent on pay and that means any cuts we have had has to come out of the remaining 20 per cent and student services and frontline services get disproportionately affected,” Mr Redmond said.
President Michael D Higgins is due to address the congress tomorrow but the absence of Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn has been taken as a snub by the union.
Mr Quinn has been criticised for rolling back on a pre-election pledge not to increase the student contribition and Mr Redmond said the minister was “running scared” from the reception he might receive.
A spokewoman for Mr Quinn said the Minister was facing into one of the education calendar's busiest periods with teaching union conferences approaching and had to decline the invitation as a result.
