http___www.universitytimes.ie_2018_08_thuig-an-colaiste-an-tearma-chinnteacht-taille-no-nior-thuig-ni-maith-ceachtar-acu__1.xml
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In March, when Take Back Trinity roiled the campus, College seemed to resolutely promise fee certainty to international and postgraduate students. Last week’s fiasco, which saw Trinity reverse course on a five per cent fee increase for international students, therefore looks rather mystifying – even if, like us, you’ve become conditioned to expect rather elliptical decision-making from the College. A charitable examination of what happened would take the supposed “differences of information interpretation” that led to the debacle at face value. That, essentially, would require us to contemplate whether Trinity, in the heat of the moment, signed on the metaphorical dotted line without knowing what it agreed to – and then, months later, had still not figured out just what exactly this whole “fee certainty” lark was. The problem, however, is that the term “fee certainty” hardly requires much interpretation. Students either get certainty – by being told what fees they’ll have to pay for their degree from the get-go – or they don’t. It’s scarcely believable that Trinity, even as worn to a frazzle as its senior figures were in March, could have taken a “fee certainty” agreement to mean anything else. There is, of course, a more sinister alternative – one that would fly in the face of the spirit of co-operation that’s been fostered in the aftermath of Take Back Trinity. Was College hoping that a charge affecting only 700 of Trinity’s 17,000 students would go unnoticed, as the campus basks in the stifling summer heat? And was it, in turn, underestimating the determination of Trinity’s students’ unions – and hoping its newly instated leaders were asleep at the wheel? The presidents of Trinity’s students’ unions insisted after meeting College last week that there was “no malice” behind the fee increase, and the willingness with which Trinity backed down suggests that the sequence of events spawned from incompetence, rather than insidiousness. But both explanations, rather unfortunately, require us to think the College more than a little foolhardy.
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I mí Márta, nuair a chuir an feachtas Tóg ar ais an Tríonóid an campas ar a cheann, ba chosúil gur gheall an Coláiste cinnteacht tháille go daingean do mhic léinn idirnáisiúnta agus iarchéime. Go fiú dóibh siúd (muidne san áireamh) atá breá cleachtaithe le cinnteoireacht thimpeallach an Choláiste faoin am seo, spreag praiseach na seachtaine seo caite idir iontas agus mearbhall sular mhalartaigh an Coláiste méadú chúig faoin gcéad do tháillí mhic léinn idirnáisiúnta agus iarchéime. Is trócaireach an té a ghlacfadh leis an mhíniú go raibh tuiscintí éagsúla ar chiall an chomhaontaithe, agus gur shínigh an Coláiste i nganfhios d’fhíorchiall an téarma “cinnteacht tháille” ag an am nó anois cúig mhí ina dhiadh. Is í an fhadhb, áfach, ná nach iomaí ciall a bhaintear as an téarma. Tá cinnteacht ag mic léinn má deirtear leo cá mhéad atá le híoc as a gcéim ón tús – nó níl sí acu. Is deacair a chreidbheáil gurbh fhéidir leis an Coláiste, go fiú agus a ionadaithe chomh cráite is a bhí siad ag an am, ciall ar bith eile a bhaint as an chomhaontú ar chinnteacht tháille. Ar ndóigh, tá féidirtheacht níos úrchóidí, a thagfadh salach ar an spiorad comhoibrithe a bhí in ainm bheith cothaithe i ndiaidh Tóg ar ais an Tríonóid. An raibh súil ag an Choláiste nach dtabharfadh 17,000 mac léinn cinneadh nach gcuireann isteach ach ar 700 acu faoi deara, agus iad ag fulaingt ón tonn teasa? Agus ar mheas sé diongbháilteacht na nAontas agus a gceannairí úra faoina luach? Is deacair a rá cé acu is measa mar mhíniú. Ar lámh amháin, is aoraí an réaltacht ná haoir í féin más fíor nár thuig oifigeaigh airgeadais an Choláiste coincheap an chinnteacht taille – smaoineamh a thuigfeadh páiste. Ar an lámh eile, ní sólásach an smaoineamh go dtabharfadh an Coláiste neamhaird mar seo ar na comhaontuithe atá déanta aige le mic léinn. Dhearbhaigh Uachtaráin na nAontas, i ndiaidh cruinnithe leis an Choláiste an tseachtain seo caite, nach raibh mailís ar bith taobh thiar den mhéadú táille, agus is cosúil le toilteanas an mhalartaithe gur neamhinniúltacht a spreag an eachtra in ionad mírúin. Ach ar an drochuair, ní thugann ceachtar den dá mhíniú léargas dearfach ar lucht stiúrtha an Choláiste san iomlán.