Students face paying for college
UNIVERSITY students are facing a return to fees from next year, after Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe announced an end to free third-level education.
Tens of thousands of Irish students will now have to fork out thousands of euro for their education under the move.
Minister O'Keeffe plans to bring the proposals to Cabinet within two weeks.
Students who are currently undertaking third level courses will avoid the fees, while students starting courses later this year will have to pay from 2010.
The move will signal the end of the era of free college education which began with the abolition of tuition fees in the mid-1990s.
The Government will now consider how best to introduce fees, a move which has provoked an angry reaction from student union bodies.
hnews@herald.ie
