College fee cuts deemed ‘not good enough’ by University of Limerick students
Budget 2027 is being released over the course of today and in the University of Limerick students are already feeling the disappointment over this year’s college fee announcement.
Last year higher education fees saw a permanent decrease of €500, now capping yearly fees at €2,500.
Budget 2027 has brought in a further fee decrease of €150, bringing total yearly fees to €2,350 for all third level students.
Psychology student, Katherine Courney has said, “It’s good there is a reduction, but I think it’s not enough, because students don’t earn a lot, and is harder for students to pay for books, accommodation and other things.”
Aisling Dennehy of Food Science and Health expressed her frustration saying, “It’s not a lot, everything about college is so expensive, and we don’t have time to work. It’s too little.”
However, college fees are also seeing an extra cut of up to €1,500, for parents with two dependents in third level education. This means that families will be paying 75% of fees per child in college.
Students are feeling a little more hopeful with this extra fee cut.
Journalism student, Jack Hans said “It’s much more than the other money that was reduced, for individual. And of course it helps, the more children you have, the harder it is to pay for all those children to go to university or to college, I think that’s the correct thing the government is doing.”
Joshua Hedges, Technology Management student said, “It it’s a good benefit, a bit too specific, I know a few people it will help, but I think there should be something more to help out other people.”
Ahead of the budget announcement, the University’s Student Life released a statement calling for the abolishment of student contribution fees, the closing of the core funding gap and the investment in student specific accommodation.
They also called out saying “Education is a right, not a luxury” and “budget or no budget, our fight doesn’t stop here.”
The official Budget 2027 announcement is set to be made at 1pm, by Tánaiste Simon Harris, the current Minister for Finance.