Sir, – Danny McCoy, of the employers’ group Ibec, advocates a loan system as the best of a bad lot to address the problem of third-level funding (“Funding crisis in higher education must be tackled”, Education Opinion, November 29th). This would discriminate against those students from less affluent backgrounds.
I agree with Danny McCoy when he suggests investment in pre-school, but even if we were to do this tomorrow, it would take at least 15 years to show any payoff. What about this generation of schoolchildren?
Loan repayments would affect people at the time when they are under the most financial pressure, with lower salaries, higher rent or mortgage repayments, and childcare expenses. What student is going to borrow to study philosophy, art, or classical studies? Many graduates may be forced to emigrate to avoid or defer repayment of student loans.
The only fair way is to spread the cost over the whole lifetime through the general taxation system. Possibly a graduate tax of an extra 1 per cent above a certain income might be a solution. This would also have to apply to those of us who already have had the benefit of a third-level education, irrespective of who paid for it.
We have to decide as a country whether we are going to take small steps forward or to allow financial emergencies to allow us to take backward steps, which would take years to rectify. – Yours, etc,
MARIE HUMPHRIES,
Dublin 9.