Northern Ireland Conservatives spokesperson, Annika Nestius-Brown, has warned that it may not be possible for the executive to charge higher university tuition fees for students from outside Northern Ireland.
“As yet we’ve still got no clarity from Stormont about the tuition issue”, Annika commented, “the first ministers have indicated that fees will be capped at £3,200, but universities minister, Stephen Farry, points out that there is no money to plug a £40 million hole in the budget which that will create.”
“To add to the confusion, it is by no means clear whether any subsidised fee would apply to all students who study here. If Northern Ireland students’ fees are capped, then, under European law, students from elsewhere in the EU can’t be charged at a higher rate. We could well have an absurd scenario whereby students from Great Britain pay substantially more to study in this part of the UK than their counterparts from Europe and the Republic of Ireland.”
“If the executive goes down that route it could well be subject to a legal challenge. In Scotland the SNP wants students from elsewhere in the UK to pay a maximum of £9,000 per year, while Scottish students and those from elsewhere in the EU will pay nothing. It now looks likely that this policy will be challenged in the courts - a case which will be of great interest in Northern Ireland. Many thousands of students from these shores travel to Scotland, England and Wales to study, each year – an experience which often helps broaden their horizons and provides a fresh perspective on the world.”
“It is a healthy and beneficial time of their lives for many students and it is also healthy that young people from Great Britain and the rest of Europe can study in our own universities, on the same basis as Northern Ireland based students. It would be regrettable if that were to change. These are issues which haven’t been thought through and which must be urgently and thoroughly debated and addressed.”
“Our executive was far behind the rest of the UK when it came to setting a budget and now we are the only part of the UK where student fees for 2012 are not yet decided. It might suit the politicians at Stormont to continually put difficult decisions off until the last minute, but in the real world people want to plan ahead. The executive has got to have an open and honest debate about this issue, immediately, so that there can be clarity for students, parents and the universities.”