A chara, - You were kind enough to print in the immediate aftermath of this year's general election a letter from myself and three of my distinguished colleagues, Prof William Coffey (engineering), Dr Sean Barrett (economics), and Dr James Whiston (Spanish). We were prompted to write in the hope that the present Fianna Fail/Progressive Democrat Government would address itself to the serious problem of adequately funding students from disadvantaged or working-class backgrounds who do well enough (and in the case of Dublin University that is very well indeed) in the Leaving Certificate to be admitted to university.
There are few of us in the university world who do not have serious misgivings about the effect of the points system on the developing lives of our young children. But it can hardly be disputed that those who come to university by means of their performance in the Leaving Certificate entirely deserve their places. It is not enough, however, that they be admitted to university. It is necessary also that they be adequately funded while they are there so that they can be full-time students able to afford the cost of accommodation, transport, and the purchase of textbooks.
The standard of admission into English at Trinity has never been higher, but I find that many of my brilliant young students have to pay their way through college by doing exacting and time-consuming jobs. It is clear that there is no level playing-field in the competition for academic distinction. And the claim that the abolition of fees has made university education free to the people of Ireland is exposed as the merest hypocrisy. - Is mise,
School of English, TCD, Dublin 2.