Students and staff join together to call on the Government to #FundTheFuture

On 21 March 2019, second and third level students along with staff and lecturers joined together to call on the government to respond to the growing crisis in higher education funding. They came together to warn the government that continued delay in addressing the deficit in third level funding is not acceptable.

In a joint statement, the Coalition for Publicly Funded Education said:

“Government has long since acceded to the fact that higher education in Ireland is chronically under-funded. The Department of Education and Skills has accepted the findings of the detailed analysis of the scale of the funding deficit that was carried out by various expert groups on their behalf. If urgent action is not taken, there’s a real risk that today’s 7 and 8-year old primary school students will not have sufficient college places available to them in 2030 when the demographic bulge peaks with an additional 40,000 students seeking to access the third level.”

The president of the Unions of Students in Ireland (USI), Síona Cahill gears up for Thursday’s action stating;

“Currently, the annual Student Contribution Charge stands at a staggering €3,000, between the years 2007-2014 this increased by a whopping 363%. Ireland will have the highest fees in the EU after the Brexit. Meanwhile, SUSI grants have not increased for students in line with the cost of living and soaring rents in Ireland today. In 2017, over 20,000 students from all over Ireland, took the streets to demand: publicly funded education”.

The #FundOurFuture is a campaign organised by USI as part of the Coalition for Publicly Funded Education, which includes: Forsa, SIPTU, ISSU, TUI, IFUT.

You can find pictures from the event here.