ANY CAP on student numbers would lead to a surge in CAO points and could only add to the pressure facing Leaving Cert students and their families, the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) has warned.
The introduction of a cap would also have disastrous consequences on economic recovery, according to the union.
The limit on student numbers is one of the options proposed by the Higher Education Authority in a report to the Minister for Education, Ruairí Quinn.
The report underlines the grave funding crisis facing the higher education sector as it seeks to accommodate record numbers of students with reduced income.
Mr Quinn is under intense pressure to build a long-term sustainable funding base for higher education. Student numbers are set to virtually double by 2030.
The authority’s sustainability report, which he commissioned, warned that the third-level sector is at a tipping point.
It said the overall quality of the system faced inevitable decline as the funding crisis deepens.
In the process this will damage the international reputation of Ireland’s education system.
In a Financial Times article this week, the former dean of the UCD Smurfit School of Business Tom Begley was sharply critical of how the Government has undermined the quality of the higher education system.
He wrote: “The Irish Government’s response to the country’s severe economic crisis has placed universities under increasingly onerous constraints.
“The Government’s reduced investment in the sector has precipitated larger class sizes, fewer full-time academic staff, lower levels of student services from a strained administrative staff and an ageing physical and technical infrastructure.” Prof Begley also wrote of the “growing gap” between rhetoric about the “innovation island” and the reality of the education system where standards have been declining.
Last night, Ned Costello, chief executive of the Irish Universities Association, representing the seven university presidents, said urgent action was needed “to reverse the funding crisis and maintain the quality of education for students in the interests of economic recovery”.
Gary Redmond, USI president, said a “short-sighted decision” to introduce a cap would have dire consequences for students and for the entire economy.
“Participation rates in the Irish higher education system are the envy of the world.
“Almost six out of 10 school leavers go on to third-level education and we have an ambitious but achievable target of increasing this to 72 per cent in the coming years.”