Sir, – In 2005 Prof James Slevin, then president of the Royal Irish Academy, and I submitted an opinion piece to The Irish Times about the deteriorating state of Irish undergraduate education. The article was never published, but its opening sentence "Ireland's third-level system is like a slowly sinking ship" continues to be as true today as it was then.
In real terms, core funding per student is today a small fraction of what it was when Niamh Bhreathnach abolished third-level fees in 1995.
According to a recent report by Grant Thornton, the core grant per student in third level fell by over 40 per cent in the period 2007 to 2011 alone. But long before the collapse of the Celtic Tiger the cynicism with which successive governments treated the third-level sector in general, and the universities in particular, was deeply depressing.
The recession only made things worse. The core grant has been cut and cut; student numbers have been driven ever upwards; the reintroduction of fees continues to be verboten.
The Higher Education Authority plays a game of beggar my neighbour – incentivising each university to take on more students at the expense of its peers. The request, last year, that universities take on an additional 1,250 ICT undergraduates is typical.
Universities were “invited” to bid for extra students and told that they would get €1,000 per student; only later did they find out that this money would come from the core grant – ie it would be taken from other disciplines and/or universities – yet again robbing Peter to pay Paul.
Universities have responded to this funding crisis in a variety of ways. They have raised the so-called “registration fee” as far as the Government will permit them. And they have turned to other sources of income, notably research grants, philanthropy, non-EU students and commercial activities with, it must be said, some success, particularly in the research arena. But such sources of funding do not necessarily do much to improve the lot of the undergraduate. Research bodies pay academics to do research, not third-level teaching, and philanthropists typically donate to specific projects (like a professorship or building) rather than contributing to day-to-day running costs or teaching.
The result, as any honest academic will tell you, is that undergraduate teaching receives less and less attention. Promotion is achieved through research and the ability to bring in money; third-level teaching (along with its associated administration) is a distraction.
Young academics are smart people; they can see how this particular game is played. In the circumstances it is remarkable that Irish universities have managed to sustain the rankings that they have. The slide of UCD down the rankings may have grabbed the headlines, but given the chronic deterioration in its financial situation, the sector as a whole has held up remarkably well.
Universities are not like hospitals; when funds are cut, nobody is at risk of dying; nobody will have to wait for years in pain or discomfort for an elective procedure.
But just as failure to invest in primary health care leads to much larger bills down to the road, so the failure to maintain the quality of our third-level system will cost us in the end. It is hardly a surprise that employers increasingly complain about the deteriorating quality of our graduates.
University funding has been the victim of political cowardice for a generation; it is time for a change of direction. – Yours, etc,
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Dublin 4.