By Alan Spencer (FEE Galway) On November 2nd, 2011 the Fine Gael / Labour government paid out over 700 million euro to the unsecured bondholders of Anglo Irish Bank – a bank that no longer effectively exists or functions as such, a bank that so far has swallowed up billions of euro of Irish taxpayers money…
By James Falconer (FEE Galway) How would you feel if you were bombarded with Sky News upon entering the university library? Considering there are a few TV screens around the library giving information about catalogue training etc. Would anyone object to this public space becoming private? I frequent the Kingfisher gym and there’s not one,…
by Gerard Madden (FEE Galway) Free Education for Everyone Galway is part of the latest expression of a long international tradition of student radicalism, dating back to the 1960’s, which seeks to challenge the injustices that exist throughout society. In the United States, for example, students held sit-ins, occupations and marches against the imperialist war…
By Sarah McCarthy (FEE Galway) Recently, Education Minister Ruarí Quinn and Taoiseach Enda Kenny announced that third-level fees will have reached €3,000 by 2015. Coupled with the recent removal of the maintenance grant for Post-Graduate degrees, this measure comes as a serious blow to current and prospective students. The same week as this revelation, FEE…
This article originally appeared in the Student Observer (2/2/12) In his first article for the Student Observer, Eoin Griffin writes of the need for a coherent and empathetic student leadership in the wake of serious problems locally and nationally. Recently in UCD some 300 students marched in protest at cut backs to student services. This…
This Monday, 23rd January FEE Galway are hosting an open forum dedicated to how people have been affected by rising fees and falling grants. It will take place from 6 – 8pm in the O’Flaherty Theatre (NUIG) All are welcome to attend
Ever since I enrolled in IT Tralee two and half years ago, our local Students’ Union has been appallingly undemocratic. I recall a brief encounter with Mike Thompson in November 2010 when he was education officer. I asked how the Tralee SU voted on a particular motion at USI National Council. His answer: “We don’t have to tell you that”. That pretty much sums up the current SU president’s attitude towards his role as a union representative.
The farce of the DCU referendum on higher education funding descended deeper into controversy last night when the DCU Student’s Union President Ed Leamy vetoed a FEE DCU motion at Class Rep Council to have the result of the recent referendum respected as a ‘democratic survey’ and adopted as union policy. The action by DCU…
DCU SU President Ed Leamy has just declared the result of the DCU referendum on the funding of higher education “null and void”. The option of a “fully free education system” had won the vote. FEE DCU will campaign for the democratic will of students to be respected and for the result to be maintained….
After a mandate from DCU’s Class Rep Council, a historic referendum was held in DCU this week to ask students their opinion on how higher education should be funded in Ireland. The original mandate put before the council had four options for students to vote on, but left out the option of a “fully free…
