The Higher Education Authority has agreed financial allocations for the university sector after college managers expressed concern about the five-month delay in assessing their budgets for this year.
The HEA pressed ahead with the spending allocations for each of the State's seven universities even though some aspects of their funding have still to be finalised by the Department of Education.
The Book of Estimates for this year provided for an 11 per cent increase for the university sector, bringing its budget to £408 million.
However, ongoing discussions between the Department of Education, the Department of Finance and the HEA about how this should be broken down has delayed the allocation of funding.
The delay has been caused by a dispute between the university sector and the Government about fee income. The universities receive an overall block grant which they are free to spend as they choose, but they are also still paid fee-income by the Government, even though fees were abolished for most undergraduates by the last Government. The universities want to see the increase in allocated fee income linked to the increase in their overall costs, but this has met some departmental resistance.
The delay in finalising university budgets has created considerable difficulties for colleges. The Conference of Heads of Irish Universities, representing college heads, has expressed concerns about the situation to the Higher Education Authority and the Department. It warned that the delay militated against the efficient running of universities.
It also warned that academics were becoming frustrated with the continuing delay in the allocation of funds.
College bursars and chief financial officers were, it warned, being put in a very difficult position; college staff were pressing for new funding for various programmes but the budgetary situation was unclear. The delay in allocating funding raises questions about the respective role of the HEA and the Department.
The HEA has responsibility for the allocation of funding to the university sector but the Department also has a role in ensuring that the spending programmes are in line with Government thinking.