This is the result of failed government policy, and Minister Simon Harris.
- 11,189 students in rent or fee debt to their institutions (2022, S4C FOI Database)
- 88% of students worry about finances (source: costofcollege.usi.ie)
- Welfare services underfunded with months-long waiting times (source: University Times, S4C survey, University Observer, UCDSU, etc.).
- Maximum PhD stipend of €18,500 which is below both living and minimum wage, but can go as low as €6,500 a year (Source: PCAU).
- PhDs are not recognized as workers, PhD reserachers have to do unpaid teaching contribution and do not receive public benefits like parental leave (Source: PCAU, PWGA, etc.).
- Non-Eu PhD researchers’ time in Ireland do not count towards their immigration visas and face € 1,000+ extra costs upon arrival like health insurance (Source: PCAU).
- All Non-EU students can expect to pay €30,000 to €50,000 for a year due to tuition fees, rental market and cost of living (Source: PCAU).
- 50% or so of staff casualized at Irish third-level institutions (Source: Irish Precarity Network).
- 80% of all researchers are on precarious contracts (Source: Irish Precarity Network).
- More than 13,000 people in job insecurity across academia, both academic workers and professional workers (Source: Irish Precarity Network).
- Casualized staff earn as little as €10,000 a year and are not sure whether they will have a job after each summer (Source: Irish Precarity Network)..
- Men spend 5.7 and women spend 7.1 years on average in precarity.
- Student:staff ratio is 1:23, highest in the EU (Source: Irish Precarity Network).
- Between 2016-2019 a total of 8,229 student accommodation beds were built. 83% of these are privately-owned. More than 90% of these are only available for € 10, 000+ a year (Source: S4C’s research).
- No strong protections or rights for students in these places. Students have as much rights as a hotel resident (Source: S4C’s research)..
- 92 out of 300 deferrals at University of Galway was self-reported due to the housing crisis (Source: rte.ie).
- 55% of students say they miss lectures to work to pay for costs (Source: ILCU survey 2019) and 60% of families get into debt (Source: USI 2016).
- 1/3 of students considered dropping out, with finances playing a key role. Approximately 15% of students have seriously considered withdrawing from their course due to financial or employment reasons. This is startling that over 20,000 people who have gone onto third level are struggling. (Source: independent.ie)
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