Northern Ireland

The choices we face; the future of fees

President of NUS-USI, Fergal McFerran
President of NUS-USI, Fergal McFerran President of NUS-USI, Fergal McFerran

THE draft programme for government aspires to a strong, balanced economy and a more equal and creative society that allows people to fulfil their potential.

With real funding choices on the table, the Northern Ireland Executive has to invest in an accessible higher and further education system as core to that vision for the future.

Properly resourced universities and colleges are crucial to Northern Ireland's economic growth. But beyond that, a thriving tertiary education system is important because it also speaks to the kind of society we want to have here.

We know investing in students and young people, and in the support they need to stay on their courses, is a great investment in their future, and in our society overall. We also know a properly resourced tertiary education system is vital to enhancing social mobility, to improving people's life chances and to achieving a fairer society with equality of opportunity at its core.

And so, as we await the first budget of this new Executive, I am mindful of the choices that our ministers face. With universities and colleges having suffered from years of real terms cuts, pressure is mounting on politicians to raise tuition fees. Proponents argue this will relieve the financial pressures facing the sector.

Higher fees might seem like the only option that's left, and in the short-term might juggle the numbers in a convenient way, but it will be a terrible choice in the long run. In England, where tuition fees are currently capped at £9,000 (soon to change) almost half of all graduates may never pay back their tuition fee loan. The UK government in fact had to write off between 25-40 per cent of debt, which is close to a situation that would cost the public more than the original system. The only result is a political fudge - dumping the real cost of education into the laps of both students and future governments.

If our current funding system isn't sustainable why would introducing one that costs students and government even more be considered as a reasonable option?

And this doesn't begin to address the problems with burdening young people with increasing private debt. Firstly studies have shown the people of NI are more debt averse than other parts of the UK, so we risk deterring the poorest young people from entering further study. Secondly we also risk reinforcing educational disadvantage by pricing people out of education and recreating privilege on an unprecedented scale. Thirdly there is increasing evidence of the alarming psychological effects of debt - which makes people more cautious and less entrepreneurial, and can exacerbate mental illnesses like anxiety and depression.

Finally, we also need to understand the context in which we're having this discussion; leaving the European Union based on a referendum that nobody under the age of 18 had a vote in, even though they arguably had the most to lose; a mainstream political consensus working to reduce Northern Ireland's corporation tax level at the exact same time as student support has been frozen for five years, whilst tuition fees have been rising by inflation every year. Young people are right to ask if our politicians really care about them.

While Northern Ireland has very few natural resources, I'd argue that our students are one of our greatest. If our aim is to have a balanced economy that thrives from a focus placed on creativity and innovation, attracting investment and generating more jobs, then surely we should acknowledge that a logical priority for any competent government would be to invest in our educational institutions, but more importantly in our students.

:: Fergal McFerran is President of the NUS-USI