Postgraduates to suffer huge fee increases
19 Masters courses rise by 80% or more
Students intending to take on a Masters course in the Colleges of Business and Law or SEFS (Science, Engineering and Food Science) in the coming year will have to pay up to treble the amount of fees paid by those studying this year.The reason cited for the most dramatic increases is the Higher Education Authority (HEA)’s phasing out of the Graduate Skills Conversion Programme (GSCP), which subsidised a number of courses, primarily in engineering, computer science, biological and chemical sciences, information technology and high technology finance.Colette O’Sullivan, financial analyst for the School of Business and Law, noted that the increases came about after a review by the HEA in 2012. “The HEA decided to phase out support to institutions under the GSCP. From September 2014 the composite course fee is a matter for individual institutions to decide in accordance with the usual conventions.”The average increase in the cost of a Masters programme in the Commerce Faculty is €2,737, while a Commerce PhD is now more expensive than in any other faculty in the college at €7,000.Meanwhile a SEFS Masters has, on average, risen in cost by €1,475, with a €1,700 jump in Higher Diplomas and €1,164 rise in Postgrad Diploma courses.Among the worst hit courses are the Independent Research MComm degree, which has almost trebled to €7,000, with the Applied Physics Masters similarly hard hit, rising from €3,750 to €10,000.Ten Science-related Masters have risen in price by a minimum of 80%, with five Business courses and four Engineering courses seeing equal upsurges.The College of Business and Law is also seeking to target international students for higher fees, with market studies suggesting that they can be competitive and charge more. Thus the average International fee has risen by €2,664.The new fees schedule was uploaded to the Fees Office website during Christmas week, although the individual pages for some programmes have not yet been updated. Indeed, some students have already been offered their postgraduate programs if they applied before the January 14th deadline. Image by: Emmet Curtin