Under-pressure NUIG students fined €250,000 for late payment of fees

Student representatives at NUI Galway have blasted the university this week for heaping more financial pressure on students struggling to pay fees.

In figures released under the Freedom of Information Act, it was revealed that NUIG fined students just under €250,000 for late payment of their €3,000 ‘student contribution’ – a situation the Students’ Union President branded as ‘ridiculous’.

Pádraic Toomey said putting additional financial strain on students who were already unable to pay what they owed defied all logic and called on the university to scrap late-payment fees in line with several other third level institutions.

“By charging these fees, the university is acting like a credit card company charging interest which just shouldn’t be the case.

“They are already charging over €3,000 in contributions and it’s as though they’re saying ‘what else can we take on top of that’,” said Mr Toomey.

According to the figures released under FOI, late payment fees to the value of €246,000 were charged to students last year, €62,000 of which was later waived. In total, the university has collected €136,000 from students, with €46,000 outstanding.

Mr Toomey said students who failed to make the minimum payments due in October and February faced a €200 fine, indicating that up to 1,200 students failed to pay in time last year.

“You could actually end up being fined twice, if you can’t make the payment on both occasions.

“It’s just another thing that feeds into ‘Rip-off NUIG’,” said Mr Toomey referring to a slogan that arose last year on foot of the university’s refusal to waive its €295 fee for repeat exams.

There was no transparency in how certain students had their late-payment fees waived, he continued, but he suspected it was a case of students having to plead their case with the fees office.

“It shouldn’t be the case that any student should have to go in and cry about being unable to pay fees. It’s like a punishment for not having the money to pay,” said Mr Toomey.

“There is no obvious process for how that [waiver] works, but we know it’s often people who will just keep their head down and bear the brunt of these charges that end up suffering.”

He said other third level institutions in Ireland blocked students from graduating or progressing to the next year of their studies if they failed to pay their fees, something he said was far more likely to secure payment.

“I just can’t put into words how ridiculous this is, the idea that you would fine people who are unable to pay in the first place.”
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