“Graduates would face extra PRSI charges, to pay partly for the cost of their third-level education, under Fine Gael proposals published yesterday. Under the plan, future graduates – but not those currently in third level – would pay for 30 per cent of the cost of educating them. Student registration fees, now running at €1,500 a year, would be abolished. Dentists, for example, would pay an extra €975 a month for four years or €487 a month for 10 years, but an arts graduate would pay, at most, €190 per month over five years. Once fully in place, the scheme would raise €500 million a year in ring-fenced income for universities and institutes of technology – though the net additional sum raised would be €325 million, given the loss of the student registration fees …” (more)
[Mark Hennessy, Irish Times, 19 March]