Madam - I found Orna Mulcahy’s article (“Should mature students be allowed to go to college?”, Opinion, January 15th) sexist and insulting. As a female, and as a mature student, I can assure you I did not return to full-time education to partake in “ogling” young fellas, or “young ones” for that matter.
As a school-leaver during the last recession, I was faced with the prospect of the dole queue or a Fás course. With free college places only introduced in 1996, university just wasn’t an option for many working-class people.
I refuse to sit on the benches this time round. I have worked hard and deserve this opportunity.
It will be a sad day indeed for the land of saints and scholars when we as a society fail to recognise how commendable it is to try and improve ourselves through education. – Yours, etc,
Madam – I read and re-read Orna Mulcahy’s article before concluding that, no, it wasn’t intended to be ironic.
I believe in freedom of speech, but also in the notion that people should take responsibility for that freedom. This is one of the most ageist and offensive articles I have read in many years. What next? Should we also ban women, foreigners, Dubliners, gays from university? And why stop there? After all, involuntary euthanasia would be more effective.
As a university lecturer for 23 years, I know that “mature” students (which in reality means anyone aged over 23) are a significant addition to any class. They work harder than the typical school-leaver, are more motivated, have learned a few things in the school of life and often raise the standard of an entire class.
Moreover, we are forever being told nowadays that no job is for life; life-long learning means continuing adaptation to new challenges. We never stop learning, nor should we.
I accept that the Ciaras and Jonathans of south Dublin have the same right as anyone else to go to college. But this article reeks of the culture of entitlement, the kind of snobbish expectation of a certain class that they have some kind of special claim on privilege.
I haven’t noticed Ms Mulcahy campaigning for better access to education for school-leavers from Ballymun or Ballyphehane, people whose parents don’t have the money for “extra grinds and Easter cramming classes”. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I take strong issue with Orna Mulcahy’s article. My experience as a university lecturer has shown that having 10 per cent or so of mature students in a class of undergraduates brings up the examination grades across the board, and I would be delighted to see more mature students being offered places on science courses.
Having a few mature students as role models – people who have no problem getting up for a 9am lecture; who understand what a deadline is and meet it; who can draw on a range of life experience when juggling workloads, writing reports, interacting with staff and other students while also dealing with domestic crises – is an enormous help to younger students.
Mature students will seek out interesting summer work for others, propose visitors to give seminars, organise student field trips, and help run student societies. Far from “sucking the lifeblood out of the university”, they are a gift both to staff and the student body. Let’s have more of them!