1000Euro Registration Fees

Het-Field

UCD'S registration fees have breached the 1000Euro mark. Next year, students availing of free fees will be forced to stump up over a grand to pay their way in college. Previously the registration fees were roughly 300Euro before being hiked to 750 Euro in 2002. Now in 2006 new students will be forced to pay a huge amount of money to attend UCD. What do you think

Pythia

Did we not have a vote to approve this?
Something to do with a new student centre?

pretty*monster

The student center levy has increased by €15 (this year, it'll be up again next year and the year after...).

Dunno where the rest of the increase is coming from and can't be bothered finding out.

humbert

can someone break this down for me, what are registration fees paying for, why are they different for different colleges and why are they not considered college fees in the conventional sense?

singingstranger

humbert wrote:

can someone break this down for me, what are registration fees paying for, why are they different for different colleges and why are they not considered college fees in the conventional sense?

In short, no. We had a motion at USI looking to campaign for a proper breakdown of the Reg Fee but eventually the motion fell because it'd be tokenistic - "€12 for SU, €840 for University admin" or whatever...

pretty*monster

*puts on her maths hat*

Ok...
the reg fee for 05/06 was €838.50 of which €63.50 was the Student Centre Levy, so what's left out of that was the €775.00 which is listed as a 'student services fee' (I know the college authorities divey out some of it between the union, the societieas and the sports clubs, no idea how much goes where or what they do with the rest.)

Insidentally last year's student services fee was up €25 on the 04/05 fee...

Right so if the student center levy is up by €15 to €78.50 (as I'm given to understand) then to bring the reg fee to €1000 the student services fee would have to have gone up to a whopping €921.50 an increase of €146.50 on last year... I don't know jack about economics but I@m pretty sure that's well above inflation...


Important question: what's the source on the regitration fee going up to a grand?

rain on

if you're eligible for a grant you only have to pay about €70 though. i think the official line is that you have to pay the whole €1000 or whatever amount it is and then you can claim it back, but i always just gave them the €63.50 or whatever it was in my day (ahem) and there was never a peep out of them. grants are great.

Sangre

stinger

Stepherunie

Hmm could be that they haven't updated stuweb yet - but it's offering to let me pay my fees now and it's saying 838.50 - could you possibly get away with paying early and avoid being made pay more?.

Anyone else getting that?

humbert

rain on wrote:

if you're eligible for a grant you only have to pay about €70 though. i think the official line is that you have to pay the whole €1000 or whatever amount it is and then you can claim it back, but i always just gave them the €63.50 or whatever it was in my day (ahem) and there was never a peep out of them. grants are great.

that's good to know, I'm eligible now and claiming it back is a pain in the hole.

Sangre wrote:

stinger

personal abuse, *screams in frenzied high pitched voice* ban him, ban him!!!:D

ozt9vdujny3srf

Unless someone can provide evidence that this is true, I'm locking this thread.

rain on

from ucd.ie/fees:

Students with no grant but ‘free’ fees pay a registration fee of :
Approximately €1,000

and also:

Fees for 2006/7 have not yet been set by the Department of Education and Science so it is not possible to quote an exact fee. Information will be available in early August

granted that's not concrete evidence that it's definitely true, but i assume it's where the OP is getting it from.

Chakar

Hmm... it is a bit too steep but the exact amount we're going to pay hasn't been finalised from the DES but from the UCD side of things its looking likely.

emeraldstar

are you serious? :eek: 1000e is so much. If I was paying fees, like I did have to do last year, it would be around 4000e for the year. That means that so-called "free" fees are still a quarter of the full cost!! Free?? ha!! my arse!!!!

rainbow kirby

Try 6k for the year for my course... I'm *nearly* there with the saving, but if the reg fee part goes up then that's another few weeks before I can afford my new laptop too. This is going to be my 2nd year paying fees

Red Alert

Someone needs to launch a "Bin the New-SC" campaign.

antSionnach

Grants suck tbh. There are two friends of mine who are somehow altering their income receipts to become eligible for grants (dont ask how) one is froma farming family and the other's sister is an accountant and manages the finances somehow so that he qualifies. I know them both well and they really dont need the grant like others do. The real people who are losing out are the borderlines who failed to qualify by a hairline.

better get the car insurance sorted before the rentals hear about the reg increase!

btw England and Wales dont pretend they have free fees, you pay like £1,100 and thats your fee. We're paying the same and yet the phrase 'free fees' is the dept of educations little trumpeted marvel and they get away with it.

humbert

yea I really don't understand how they decide who gets a grant, I know some people who's parents seem to have an endless amount of money to spend on them but also get a grant. I think it may have something to do with them being strict on earnings but not on assets, but that's really just a guess

Stepherunie

antSionnach wrote:

btw England and Wales dont pretend they have free fees, you pay like £1,100 and thats your fee. We're paying the same and yet the phrase 'free fees' is the dept of educations little trumpeted marvel and they get away with it.

That fee is actually means tested - i.e the max you can be made to pay is 1,100 pounds, you can pay anything from nothing to that - you can chose to apply or if you know you won't qualify you can just say you'll pay the fee. And if you do a healthcare type course you get free fees (not sure if that applies to irish students though)

singingstranger

My SIS has been offering an €838.50 registration for a while now, but it genuinely can't be right because that would mean, with the Student Centre levy taken into account (€63.50 last year to €75 this year), the actual 'fee' is gone down, and no way that's happening.

rain_on wrote:

if you're eligible for a grant you only have to pay about €70 though.

This would be the Student Centre levy, which is €75 this year, will be €100 the year after, and €150 the year after that, as approved by yizzer all in the referendum, nudge nudge, wink wink.

pretty*monster

singingstranger wrote:

My SIS has been offering an €838.50 registration for a while now, but it genuinely can't be right because that would mean, with the Student Centre levy taken into account (€63.50 last year to €75 this year), the actual 'fee' is gone down, and no way that's happening.

I try to ignore most og what the SIS tells me to do. It was encouraging me to 'pay fees' all year. Er, no thank you.

Umaro

I don't know, it always seems pretty ungrateful when people get stingy about paying fees for something which will provide them with thousands of extra income in years to come.

I wouldn't mind paying the money because I do understand that it's an investment for my own future (and a pretty small one at that if you look at the bigger picture). Whether you're getting any extra value for your money is anybody's guess but I'd like to think it does go some way towards improving the butter that greases the administrative wheels of the UCD Kremlin.

(Now to void my argument..)

And besides, I won't be paying it - Bank of Mum & Dad FTW!!!

Pythia

Umaro wrote:

I don't know, it always seems pretty ungrateful when people get stingy about paying fees for something which will provide them with thousands of extra income in years to come.

Have to say I agree. If everything works out as it should, I should get quite a hefty paycheck 4 years after graduation. Definitely worth 1000e a year for 3 years.

pretty*monster

Umaro wrote:

I don't know, it always seems pretty ungrateful when people get stingy about paying fees for something which will provide them with thousands of extra income in years to come.

I wouldn't mind paying the money because I do understand that it's an investment for my own future (and a pretty small one at that if you look at the bigger picture). Whether you're getting any extra value for your money is anybody's guess but I'd like to think it does go some way towards improving the butter that greases the administrative wheels of the UCD Kremlin.

(Now to void my argument..)

And besides, I won't be paying it - Bank of Mum & Dad FTW!!!

I don't mind paying fees personally because me (well... my parents) can well afford it.
I object the the gorernment using the term 'free fees' when it's quite obviouse that fees are not free.

Stepherunie

I don't mind paying a registration fee - I'm grateful to be able to study in Ireland, but at least in England there's no messing about it - they just state that the 1,100 pounds are whatever is what you ahve to pay, end of - it's you're fees to go to college - I just think they should be more bloody clear about it.

To me a grand is a drop in the ocean for what i'm getting out of college - an almost guaranteed job and great opportunities for going on to do postgrads - never minded the registration fee, i just don't approve of the huge hike in the student centre levy for something i won't get any use of or that is really needed.

Chakar

Stepherunie wrote:

i just don't approve of the huge hike in the student centre levy for something i won't get any use of or that is really needed.

You can have graduate membership of the swimming pool which is cheaper than any other pool in Ireland.Also the new student centre will cater for all society and club activity which has to be lauded.No more using the Arts Block or college buildings.All societies and clubs that are approved to need offices, will have offices and facilities.For example societies would be the ones having offices like Lawsoc, L&H.Also DanceSoc, FilmSoc and Dramsoc would have the facilities required to undertake their activities.DanceSoc weren't active this year because they weren't allowed to use the Sports Centre because they are a society not a club as only clubs are allowed to use the Sports Centre.

Its a great venture and its going to be linked to the present student centre in which the building site will be the car park adjoining it.The new student centre is going to have everything the students union, societies and clubs need.

The plans haven't been devised yet but it is certain that it will have the basic features such as the swimming pool for one, debating chamber, cinema and a big relaxation area and concourse that all students will use sometime.There are other features voted by the student population that I can't recall.

We won't have any more building projects after the new student centre we will be all set for the future.

Also we really need it as with modularisation and semesterisation, it is putting pressure on facilities especially in Arts in which Jazzsoc, a society with 300 members was refused a room for their AGM.

boneless

Chakar wrote:

You can have graduate membership of the swimming pool which is cheaper than any other pool in Ireland.Also the new student centre will cater for all society and club activity which has to be lauded.No more using the Arts Block or college buildings.All societies and clubs that are approved to need offices, will have offices and facilities.For example societies would be the ones having offices like Lawsoc, L&H.Also DanceSoc, FilmSoc and Dramsoc would have the facilities required to undertake their activities.DanceSoc weren't active this year because they weren't allowed to use the Sports Centre because they are a society not a club as only clubs are allowed to use the Sports Centre.

Its a great venture and its going to be linked to the present student centre in which the building site will be the car park adjoining it.The new student centre is going to have everything the students union, societies and clubs need.

The plans haven't been devised yet but it is certain that it will have the basic features such as the swimming pool for one, debating chamber, cinema and a big relaxation area and concourse that all students will use sometime.There are other features voted by the student population that I can't recall.

We won't have any more building projects after the new student centre we will be all set for the future.

Also we really need it as with modularisation and semesterisation, it is putting pressure on facilities especially in Arts in which Jazzsoc, a society with 300 members was refused a room for their AGM.

*Clicks heels and says "theres no place like home!"*

arbeitsscheuer

You ain't in a free education system anymore, Dorothy...

Jonny Arson

Er some people think it's a ok for the our wonderful government to hike up the reg fee waaaaay above the rate of inflation (by about 15%) ......

well how would feel if your hard earned E1000 went to funding a fraction of your fabulous taoiseach's annual makeup expenses heh? It's a fact!

Pythia

Is it the government or UCD itself?

rainbow kirby

A little from column A, a little from column B.