STUDENTS have warned a proposed loan scheme for college and university courses would spark a new emigration brain drain.
The "study now pay later " idea could see graduates in the Republic pay back about €150 a month until they turn 33 in what researchers have claimed is the cheapest way to fund a major expansion of third level education.
The option was put forward in research being presented to an Oireachtas committee this week.
But the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) said it rejects the idea student loans are an effective way to fund the sector.
It said such a scheme would be expensive to set up, would spur on a new surge in emigration and disproportionately punish public-sector employees and workers outside the highest earning professions.
Annie Hoey, president of the USI, said repayments of €150 a month are "simply out of touch with the reality of graduate salaries in Ireland".
"A loan scheme is likely to spur an increase in emigration from the country to avoid debt repayment, with significant economic, skills and social consequences," she said.
The loans scheme, described as "income-contingent" was set out in research by Professor Bruce Chapman, who designed a similar system in Australia, and Maynooth University academic Dr Aedin Doris.
It warned of the impact of emigration on the scheme and that up to 10 per cent of graduates in Ireland would not repay their loans.
The proposal suggests that graduates would only begin to repay their education debts when they start earning a certain level, a salary of €26,000 for loans of €16,000
