Budget 2023: What’s In It For Students?
By Atakan Uzun
With students facing the crippling costs of student accommodation, coupled with the €3,000 tuition fees, they were hoping for measures to be introduced in Budget 2023 to alleviate these financial pressures. So what’s in Budget 2023 for students? Many of the measures introduced, compile of a range of temporary measures and support packages. The main measures tended to focus on reducing the financial pressures that undergraduate students face. One of the main measures for undergraduates was the introduction of a €1,000 reduction in the undergraduate student contribution fee for students that can avail of the free fees’ initiative. This represents the first decrease in the student contribution fees in over 7 years. From next year onwards, a €500 cut in the tuition fees will become permanent for any family earning less than €100,000 per year, meaning the student contribution fees for undergraduate students will cost €2,500 euro, while students with families earning €62,000 or less per year will pay no more than €1,500 in fees.
Students that are registered with SUSI can also avail of a once-off extra payment if they are in receival of maintenance grant assistance. This payment will be given to those students before Christmas, coming at a total of €17.4 million government funding. According to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris, “the student maintenance grant is a vital tool in helping us deliver fairness and equality for students across our education sector, but we know it can do more. That’s why as part of Budget 2023 we are making significant changes which will see students have more money in their pockets to help them tackle the challenges posed by the cost of living crisis.” He also stated that “if you’re in receipt of the highest rate of the student grant you will have been due to get over €600 in the month of December, you will now be due to get over €1,300 in December”. Once-off measures are also in place for postgraduate students. Students, those of which registered with SUSI, and studying a postgraduate programme, will receive a once-off payment of €1,000. This will allow their grant to rise from €3,500 to €4,000 euro. According to Minister Harris, in response to disappointment expressed by postgraduate students who are excluded from the €1,000 reduction, “if you have an income of €55,000 or less you qualify for a contribution towards your fees, that qualification was €3,500 and we’re increasing that by €1,000”, Harris explained. With this once-off increase, the postgraduate tuition fee contribution grant is now a total of €4,500 for this academic year”. Furthermore, once-off measures are also in place for PHD students who are in receipt of the SFI or IRC. This will be done through the granting of a €500 payment.
Changes have also been made to the SUSI grant. From January onwards, the Special and Band 1 maintenance grant rate will increase by 14%, while all other maintenance grant rates will increase by 10%, whilst a further €8 million will be invested in the Student Assistance Fund for the current academic year. Meanwhile, income of up to €14,000 that is generated under the Government’s ‘rent-a-room’ scheme will not be considered when calculating reckonable income for the 2023/2024 student grant scheme. However, measures to alleviate the permanent financial pressures that students face were lacking. According to the USI President, Beth O’Reilly, the “Budget was a missed opportunity to permanently reduce the Student Contribution Charge and start the move towards abolishing fees”.
President O’Reilly added that “in our Pre-Budget submission, USI called for a permanent €1,000 reduction in fees. In these expensive times, this ‘once-off’ reduction will be quickly spent on high rents and soaring costs-of-living. Through this reduction, the Government is recognising that high fees are a barrier to accessing higher education. And the measures set to be introduced to SUSI from next year will not remove the significant barriers that currently face the hardest-pressed students and their families. We need a move towards publicly funded higher education now”. Despite the current student accommodation crisis, the Government did not commit to financial measures to reduce rents. Commenting on the current crisis in student accommodation across the country, Beth O’Reilly said, “we also don’t see any measures in this Budget to address the serious student accommodation crisis, which is making college inaccessible, or an extreme hardship, for many. Without significant action on student housing, including the announcement of a new student accommodation strategy, capital grants for affordable purpose-built student accommodation and rent freezes – along with action on the cost-of-living – these tweaks and changes will not make much of a different to students who are struggling to pay their bills”.
Along with this, despite a €150 million investment in further and higher education, permanent measures to address deficiencies in the third level sector were absent. The Irish Universities Association (IUA) expressed disappointment with the under-funding of the third level sector. Their statement confirmed that the €40 million plug-in funding to address the shortfall that the third level sector faces was only 13% of the total €307 million deficit which was previously identified by the Government. According to them, “we need the government to accelerate their response to the funding crisis in the sector in line with the commitment given just 4 months ago in Funding the Future.” In summary, Budget 2023 provided a mixed bag of measures for students.
On one hand, undergraduate students will certainly welcome the €1,000 reduction in the current fees for the present academic year. This will help to put money back into the pockets of students facing financial pressures and struggling to pay the €3,000 tuition fees. However, this is only available for those that qualify for the Free Fees Initiative. Alongside this, as acknowledged by USI, these measures appear to be papering over the cracks. Rather than permanently reducing the third level fees by €1,000, as recommended by USI, the Government have taken the one-off approach. In the midst of the current cost of living crisis, this €1,000 one-off reduction in the fees will quickly be swallowed up by rising rents for students needing to pay for accommodation. Anyhow, the €500 euro permanent reduction in third level fees for students with families earning less than €100,000 per year from the 2023/2024 academic year onwards will be a welcome relief, whilst other students with families earning €62,000 or less per year will only be required to pay half their fees.
But criticism directed at these measures are their focus on addressing issues undergraduate students face rather than the struggles of postgraduate and PhD students. Commenting on the focus of the Government on reducing the pressures of undergraduates compared to postgraduates, Minister Harris said, “if we have to start from somewhere I think it was right and proper to start with the €3,000 levy for undergrads.” “It’s a balance between universal and targeted measures.” he added. Postgraduate and PhD students will certainly feel abandoned in the latest Budget. Despite a €1,000 once-off payment for postgraduate students who are registered with SUSI, it will be quickly swallowed up by the current cost of living crisis. This payment also fails to take into account the pressures many postgraduate students face in finding and paying rent for student accommodation.
Regarding PhD students, they may feel the €500 euro payment is pittance, given the precarity and financial pressures they face. Instead what the Government could have done to compensate for the crisis and pressures facing third level students, whether they are undergraduates, postgraduates or PhD students, is to have plugged the shortfall in third level funding that is currently in excess of €300 million. By doing so, they could commit to moving toward a publicly funded higher education system. Turning to the nationwide student accommodation crisis, it is unlikely that students can avail of the €500 euro tax relief on rent that is in place for the general population in the private rental market. Many students would argue that what the Government could have done is to commit to building purpose-built student accommodation at affordable rent prices. In line with this commitment, and the recommendations of the USI, a rent freeze would have made a difference to struggling students. While the Budget had many positive measures for some students, it may have no effect for many students across third level institutions throughout the country.