The prospect of raising college fees will be back on the agenda at a major conference on education funding today. University bosses say there is a need for urgent action to address the growing crisis in third level education.

Funding options to be looked at include more investment from industry, private donations as well as student fees.

Currently students pay €2,750 a year in registration fees - rising to €3,000 next September. Since 2008 successive governments have cut college funding by one third.

The gathering, entitled '21st Century Universities: Performance and Sustainability', is organised by the Irish Universities Association (IUA).

It brings together respected experts from across the globe to review the performance and regulatory challenges facing the third level sector.

It will also hear from the Education Minister, Jan O'Sullivan, in her first public address to the sector.

"An increase in Ireland's population combined with increased participation rates at third level has seen consistently growing student numbers entering higher education institutions," the IUA says.

"This is set against a decline in income per student of 22% from 2008-2014, coupled with increased class sizes," it adds.

There has been an overall decrease in exchequer funding of all higher education institutions by 32% in the past six years - from €1,393.2m to €938.9m.

Speaking on the aim and significance of the conference the IUA chair, Dr Patrick Prendergast, said: "Successful countries have high quality higher education systems, and all high-functioning knowledge economies have universities of global reputation."

"We want to look at the issues of competitiveness, performance, regulation, governance and financing of higher education institutions."

"We want to understand Ireland's position on these issues in comparison to other countries and we want our thinking about future sustainability to be informed by best international practice," he added.