The Academic Registry confirmed to Trinity News this afternoon that a Student Centre levy of €30 is to be added to student fees charged for the next academic year.
The money is to go towards a €7 million purpose-built student centre as well as to updating and improving existing student and society spaces in College.
The additional charge was approved by 88% of voters in a student referendum in March of 2017, and was due to be collected from first and second year students at the beginning of the next academic year in September of 2017.
However, due to administrative problems the Academic Registry failed to collect the levy for two years.
It was intended that the money collected from the first two years of the levy was to go towards updating current student spaces. Therefore, when the money was not made available, Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU) and the Central Societies Committee (CSC) took out a loan of €180,000 from College to pay for updating society spaces including the Atrium and introducing a student space in the Trinity Biomedical Sciences Institute (TBSI).
The Student Centre levy will now be added into the section of Trinity student fees that also includes the €120 Sports Centre levy, €8 for USI membership and the graduation fee. Graduation fees, which are currently paid in full at €135 during a student’s third year will, from next year, be spread out over the four years that an undergraduate student spends in Trinity.
Students starting their first year at Trinity this September will therefore pay additional charges on their fees of €191.75 annually, on top of any tuition fee or student contribution. Students who are deemed to be in financial hardship will be exempt from the Student Centre levy.
The Student Centre levy is due to be paid by students for the next 22 years and will go towards the building and maintaining of a 1,000 square metre, on-campus student space, the construction of which is estimated to cost around €7 million.
Any spending of the funds will be decided by the executive committees of TCDSU and the CSC and will be presented to the Capitations Committee for approval.
The Capitations Committee is made up of representatives from TCDSU, the CSC, the Graduates Students’ Union (GSU), the Dublin University Central Athletics Club (DUCAC) and Trinity Publications.
