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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
16 November 2014
graduates, now, who wouldn’t be paying that graduation
tax and when you introduce it you’d have a new cohort of
grads who would be paying a much higher tax band than
anyone else and I think it could act as a disincentive to
go to third-level education”.
In terms of educational exemplars, the Nordic model is
a repeating conversational reference in line with her self-
description as a “social democrat” (one who has “no party
I particularly want to sign up with right now”). Germany
and Scotland, as other providers of free third-level edu-
cation, are also mentioned. As to how free third-level
education might be funded, Harmon argues that, even at
present, free education is possible and could be achieved
by “progressive taxation” and strict tax enforcement so
that the likes of Apple pay “the amount of tax they should
be paying”. No doubt this is fair, if easily populist, but I
want to know what makes her leadership any different
from past USI leaders’.
She humbly believes that that is for others to decide
but believes her successful election “seems to have been
because I’m a campaigner, I work
hard for the causes which moti-
vate us and I’m straightforward”.
That characteristic doesn’t come
across in our interview and I’m
reminded of past encounters
with student leadership.
Later, I offer her the opportu-
nity to differentiate herself by
asking if she favours equality of
opportunity or equality of out-
come and what she believes the
role of private money has in the
provision of education.
Harmon believes that without
equality of opportunity you can-
not achieve equality of outcome
as you “miss out on a cohort of
people who can’t access the sys-
tem”. Many on the left would
claim something very different – that equality of oppor-
tunity fails to address the inherited inequalities that
make the equality of the opportunity less meaningful.
As to private money, while initially she states that “ide-
ally you have to have it all completely public if you’re
going to create real equality of opportunity for every-
one”, she later amends this to “private colleges offer a
choice and a valuable option - and the diversity of options
for students keeps the quality up in the private and pub-
lic sectors”.
Harmon is no slave to the iconoclastic traditions of
USI. Middle Ireland can sleep comfortable in the knowl-
edge that its educational system is not under threat from
the leadership of its most inuential student body. •
The Nordic
model is a
repeating
conversational
reference in
line with her
self-description
as a ‘social
democrat’
“
L
AURA Harmon
is on the phone
when I meet her
outside the Douglas
Hyde Gallery in Trinity
College. She finishes,
apologises gratuitously,
and we make our way
into the Arts block to
locate an empty lecture
theatre. A sensor notes
our presence and the
lights beam into action
as we find seats at a
desk on the podium – a
vantage point Harmon is
likely to be quite familiar with from her campaigning.
I’ve interviewed a number of student sabbatical offic-
ers and have been often struck by how invariable and
institutionalised their answers tend to be. Will Harmon
be any different?
I open by asking her how good she thinks the Irish edu-
cation system is. Her answer surprises me: “we have a
very good education system in Ireland – certainly”.
I note – mentally – that only Trinity is ranked in the top
100 universities in Europe according to the most recent
QS rankings (UCD ranked 139, UCC 230, NUIG 280, DCU
366). For a president of a lobbying body that has been so
critical it seems an unnecessary concession.
I ask Harmon how important she thinks USI is to stu-
dents in Ireland. “I certainly think that we need to ask
ourselves if we didn’t have a national students’ union
what position would we be in”. With fees [‘contribution
charges’] having risen by €250 during each of the last
three years, it’s a question that UCD students were ask-
ing when they voted to leave the USI last year.
Harmon claims that student supports were protected
“by and large” in the budget, something that she thinks
wouldn’t have occurred if USI hadn’t been lobbying for
it.
USI doesn’t get too involved in secondary education
but she says she would “personally favour transition
year to occur after the Leaving Cert so that you could
get support and tutoring through that year and a lot
of career guidance”. She agrees with former Eduation
Minister Ruairi Quinn that philosophy should be taught
in schools.
She’s strong on student loans:
“In Ireland in particular we have very high levels of
personal debt as it stands so I don’t think that a loan
scheme would be the option. Graduates already pay,
on average, 75% more tax during their lifetimes than
non-graduates so a graduate tax would, I think, create
an intergenerational inequality as well where you have
Safe pair of hands
Jonny Baxter interviews Laura Harmon, President of the
Union of Students in Ireland (USI)
Laura Harmon
President of the USI
NEWS
INTERVIEW
