Vol. 23 #06 30 Nov. 2021
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Winner: Best Newspaper at the National Student Media Awards 2019
Student Independent News Nuachtán saor in aisce · Vol. 23 Issue 06 · 30 Nov. 2021
Protestors put a creative spin on placards as students chant ‘f*ck the fees’
Niamh McGrath, NUI Galway SU Disability Rights Officer attended the protest alongside student Lottie Wilkins
Students say ‘F*ck the Fees’ in new Cost of College Campaign • Hundreds of students protest against the cost of fees and accommodation in three regional protests • NUI Galway slammed for repeat exam fees at Galway Protest
By Valerie McHugh
Editor
The third of three regional student protests campaigning against the cost of higher education took place last Wednesday in Galway. The Cost of College campaign, directed by the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), aims to lobby the government for change in the cost of college fees for students in Ireland.
The campaign encompasses both the ‘F*ck the Fees’ and the ‘No Keys No Degrees’ campaigns that the USI are leading, with students in the Republic of Ireland paying the highest college fees in the EU. Students in Ireland are also subject to accommodation and renting costs of up to and exceeding €1,000. Beth O’Reilly, the Vice President for Campaigns in the USI, told Flirt Newsfeed and SIN that “We started the Cost of College Campaign because all year we have seen so many stories of student poverty, people struggling to pay rent, and ultimately what this comes back to is that our higher education system is pricing people out of education.
“Nobody should be priced out of education. It should be a right, and not a privilege. We started this campaign and we are holding these protests to show the government that the student demand for publicly funded education is there and that they need to make a decision on that sooner rather than later.” Three regional protests were arranged in Cork, Dublin and Galway last week as opposed to having one larger protest in Dublin to acknowledge the concerns that people would have around travelling and gathering in large groups during the pandemic. This decision was also taken CONTINUED ON PAGE 4