A working party of College Board has prepared a proposal that would change the way the student service charge is defined and applied in Trinity College.

This working party, chaired by the Dean of Students, Prof. Gerry Whyte, has submitted their report to the Finance Committee whose recommendations will be discussed at its next meeting on March 19, following which the report will go to Board.

It is thought that the report will contain proposals to form a new committee that will include student representation and will meet three times per year to examine the disbursement of the €1,500 charge on each student.

The College will not confirm if the there is a new definition of a student service included in the proposal.  However, the Students’ Union is pushing for a change in definition that has been used in disbursing the charge.

The charge is supposed to be used to pay for student services like health and counselling however when the Provost, Professor John Hegerty appeared before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science he told the Committee that ‘every action of the University is geared towards students; it is why we exist.’ 

He explained to the Committee that most services of the College are student services but traditionally were not included in the calculations on the student service fee but as the fee rose more of the services could be paid for with the charge. 

The Provost was answering questions on why the charge was being used to fund the animal testing centre and core college services like the library.

If the College changes the definition of what can be funded from the student service charge then it must reduce the charge to a level that matches the actual costs or admit that the College is charging students for core college services which is seen as being tantamount to a reintroduction of third-level fees.

The College said that the ‘recommendations concerning the student service charge should be made available when due process has taken place, following the next Board meeting.’

The Minister of Education has been called to appear before the Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science on March 25 to answer questions about the student service charge.

The Provost maintains that the core grant, which is the money paid by the State, never supported activities that did not include student services and that the College was just not defining those activities as student services for the purposes of the charge.

In accounts released by Trinity Students’ Union the College wants to start charging Information System Services (ISS), the Centre for Microscopy, and Innovation services to the student service charge. Ó Broin says that  ‘the universities are attempting to rewrite history by saying that the costs associated with running libraries and computer systems in their respective universities have always been “student Services”.’