Mary O’Connor, president of the Graduate Students’ Union at Trinity College Dublin said that prior to the budget announcement, she and the GSU EMS Faculty Rep and the President of the UL Postgraduates’ Union met with the financial advisers of the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn, not “to debate about broken promises, criticise the government, or persuade them to cut other areas”, but “to ensure that education as a whole be conserved.” They “spoke on behalf of the University Rankings and the need of leading Irish research to drive Irish University reputation in an international landscape.” They claimed that: “If the rankings drop, external funding could also drop; which would ultimately decrease research and the number of researchers.”
O’Connor explained that postgraduate students are a benefit rather than a burden to third level institutions.Trinity PhD students, for example, tend to be a ‘cheap labour’ for third level institutions as most of them teach for a limited amount of money or volunteer, ultimately lowering costs for third level institutions and therefore the government.
Currently, the government pays a maintenance grant of €3000, the total grant for a postgraduate student being around €6000 including fees. The government pays around €10,000 for a person on the dole.
In statements to the Dáil, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Brendan Howlin said: “While we have had to make savings by abolishing student support for some new postgraduate students, we will make a contribution towards the fees of postgraduate students from the lowest income backgrounds.”
The abolition of the maintenance grant will prove detrimental for many, however. One 27 year old postgraduate student who wishes to remain unnamed told The University Times that will have no other option but to drop out if there are any further cuts. She was self-employed for seven years before deciding to go into third level education.
“As a mature student I had done my research before applying to the college, had savings and was confident enough that with the help of the grant I would be able to pay my bills,” she said.
The student went on to explain how her grant was cut by 60% last year. As a mature student she had been getting her fee paid and just over €3000 in three instalments paid during the year.
“I get roughly €1200 per year spread over three instalments”, she said. “Bearing in mind that I don’t qualify for ‘back to education allowance’ it literally means I have €1200 to live on for eight months, which is a joke!”
Furthermore, she points out that she is in a “loop of social welfare”. She doesn’t qualify for the ‘back to education allowance’ because she was only four months on the dole before starting the college and not nine. Because she was running her own business before, she doesn’t qualify for many other social welfare payments.
“I don’t live with my parents; therefore I have to pay for everything myself. On the other hand people who live with their parents, but are a certain distance away from college get over €3000. I think it’s unfair.”
The severity of the cuts to the education sector cannot be underestimated. The fact of the matter is that postgraduate students will suffer greatly under this budget, and it will, in the long run, have strong ramifications for research in Ireland.
