Madam, – The decision by the coalition partners to go forward with a plan to continue free third-level level education is social madness in the present climate.
Dropout rates in the early years of third-level courses are already extremely high (possibly as much as 20 per cent). The reasons are complex, but high among them is a lack of appreciation by students of free third-level education.
I subscribe to the philosophy that investment in education is of paramount importance to our future. As a third- and fourth-level educator I have found standards drop over the past years. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees now proliferate and in many cases are parchments of dubious merit. Many “free” students who remain in the system develop a student lifestyle built around grants, part-time work and heavy drinking.
Can we not operate in the third and fourth levels on the principle that there is no such thing as a free lunch? Young adults deciding their futures should be required to fund their chosen futures and generate their own funding. Countries such as the US that operate this principle are very high on indices of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Is it not time to set up the Educational Advancement Management Bank to fund any student planning a career requiring third- and/or fourth-level education? Loans would be repayable from future employment? – Yours, etc,