Students' union officers in the Institutes of Technology are sceptical about the Department of Education's plan to create as many as 8,000 new places in the State's 13 ITs.
Sources in the Department were quoted last week as promising an increase of 14,000 in the number of third-level students over the next two years. The majority of these are to be in the IT sector, with 4,000 to come on stream next year.
The Minister for Education and Science, Micheal Martin, was more circumspect in his promises, telling the Teachers Union of Ireland annual congress on Wednesday that the institutes would take a "leading role" in expanding provision at third level.
Despite the fact that Tallaght, Waterford and Athlone ITs are all embarking on multi-million-pound building projects, student representatives from the three institutes find it difficult to see how their respective institutions could take on any extra students next year.
Students in Tallaght IT already use prefabricated temporary buildings.
"I can't see how we could take extra people next year unless they were planning to put them on the roof", says students' union vice president Josephine O'Donovan.
While Tallaght are entering phase one of a building programme, library, canteen and computer facilities are currently chronically overcrowded. During the Easter holidays, with just a month left until exams, and project deadlines imminent, only 20 computer terminals were available to Tallaght's 1,687 students, according to the union. There are a grand total of 180 seats in the library, or one seat for every nine students. Things are a little better in the canteen where there's one seat for every six-and-a-half students. Brendan Kiely, president of the students' union in Athlone IT also has grave doubts about the Department's plans.
"From a local point of view, I just can't understand how the minister hopes to expand the number of places that much. Students are already being accommodated in small prefabricated buildings here. Student services and union facilities are already under huge strain.
"In Athlone we're particularly concerned about student welfare services. There have been three student suicides here since Christmas. There's a huge need for counselling services here, and it's the type of issue that should be tackled before we expand our intake.
"We would have no problem with extra students coming to Athlone if the Minister was willing and able to put funding in place to meet the needs of the students who are here already. At the moment, despite the fact that the capitation fee was increased by £100 last year, we're still waiting for an increase in the amount of money provided to student services."
Despite the fact that Waterford IT is embarking on the first £12 million phase of a £40 million development plan, the president-elect of the students' union there, Mark Kelly, regards the Department's short-term expansion plans as unwise. "I don't believe there's the space or the staff to cope with such a large increase in intake at the moment. With the building plan, it might be possible in five years' time, but at present it would be difficult even to find living accommodation for additional students. "Everyone wants to see the Institutes of Technology develop, but not at the cost of the students currently studying here. If the Department imposes a huge increase in intake over the next two years, it's going to be very bad for student morale. "Already it's hard enough to get the use of computer and library facilities. In fact, Waterford hasn't even got the classrooms to cater for the current student body.
"The library situation is absolutely chronic. We're pressing the college authorities to address it in the short term, and provide extra study facilities in the run-up to the exams." Kelly concludes that it's difficult to see the point of the Institutes of Technology taking in more people in the short term.
"Many of our existing courses aren't being properly looked after as it is. There's no point in making present-day students suffer for the sake of future development."
