College cutbacks to cost Cork economy | €33m Stephen Barry

With four weeks to go until Budget 2012, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has launched an innovative campaign which intends to localise and broaden the now annual campaign against an increase to college fees. As part of the ‘Fed up? Stand up’ campaign, the USI has revealed that the rising level of the student contribution and decrease in maintenance grants for UCC and CIT students could cost the local economy up to €33,157,630 over the next four years.The new campaign represents a change of tack from the USI in reaction to the failure to reverse last year’s cuts on students. The aim of campaign is to get students to take ownership of the campaign with a month of local activism which will look to gain support from local public representatives as well as informing businesses of the effect of cuts on students.A joint rally by the UCC and CIT Students Unions, held on Monday, was the campaign’s first regional mobilisation of students. After gathering outside the Boole Library, the students marched to Jerry Buttimer’s constituency office on Glasheen Road to continue the protest.Buttimer is one of thirty-two strategically selected TDs who the USI are targeting for lobbying activities through their affiliate college unions. In UCC, the Students Union will also target Labour TD Ciarán Lynch as well as meeting up with other members of parliament to seek allies to their campaign.The figure of over €33 million is based on current student numbers (18,578) in Cork’s two third-level institutions. It calculates the effect of the €250 increase to the student contribution and €59 cut to maintenance grants in this year, as well as plans to repeat these cutbacks on government spending year-on-year between now and 2015, with fees set to increase to €3,000 and grants to drop by a further €177 in that timeframe. Maintenance grants have already been cut by 11% since the 2011 budget. In total, UCC students will suffer €25,056,550 of the net loss with 3,295 students in receipt of a maintenance grant and the remaining 9,283 paying full fees.This announcement was discussed in further detail in a public meeting in the Imperial Hotel on Thursday the 25th of October about the cost of college. President of the USI, John Logue commented: “These figures illustrate how cuts to the third level funding have a hugely detrimental effect on local economies. The hardship caused by fee increases and grant cuts isn’t isolated to students and their families, it affects the entire community. Landlords, shop owners and other business proprietors rely on these students to maintain a healthy turnover.”In the words of, UCCSU Deputy President and Campaigns Officer, Sam Ryan “what the campaign is trying to do is show that students are movers within the local economy. It looks like students could be worth on a yearly basis anything up to €10,000, sometimes even more.” Educationireland.ie quotes the average cost of putting a student through a year of college at €10,500.Other campaign issues are the 39% unemployment rate among graduates under the age of 25 as well as the increase in the qualifying distance between a student’s home and their college to receive the non-adjacent maintenance rate from 24km to 45km made in Budget 2011.Speaking in advance of Monday’s protest, Ryan added: “I think what we could show is students showing other students that there’s a fight here, and we could also send a message to Jerry Buttimer saying students aren’t going to take it lying down. It would be fantastic if Jerry Buttimer would go back to the parliamentary meeting and explain the kind of action that happened in Cork, because this is the first of all the USI actions.”