GSU calls on College to reform tuition fee policy

Postgraduate fees who exceed their initial period of registration by more than a month are at present liable to pay a full year’s tuition fees

The Graduates Students’ Union (GSU) Council tonight passed a motion calling on College to reform its postgraduate tuition fee policies.

The motion mandates the GSU to lobby for “a fairer system of charges for PhD students who go over their registration period by a time significantly less than an academic year.” At present, postgraduate students who go over their initial registration period by more than one month are liable to pay an additional full academic year’s fees. Council considered this “an unfair practice”.

The GSU is now mandated to “to work with the relevant College officers and departments to implement a more transparent and clear policy for tuition fees”.

The motion also cited the recent increase in postgraduate fees. College has approved a 5% increase in postgraduate and non-EU undergraduate fees for the 2018/19 academic year. The motion stated that this “has a substantial impact on multi-year students’ ability to budget accordingly for the duration of their programme”.

Additional reporting by Rory O’Neill.

Peter Kelly

Peter Kelly is the current Assistant Editor of Trinity News. He is a Junior Sophister Law student, and a former Deputy News Editor.