College places facing the axe as budget cuts bite
Entry points to rise and courses may get chop
Students hoping to go to university are to face higher points and fewer places because of pending "unsustainable" budget cuts, several college presidents have warned this weekend.
In the wake of a letter to the seven presidents of Irish universities last week from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) warning to expect further cuts in December's Budget, the heads said they wanted to meet with Tanaiste Mary Coughlan to discuss the funding crisis.
The crisis is also to be top of the agenda when the seven presidents meet at Dublin City University (DCU) next week.
Speaking to this newspaper, several of the presidents have delivered a stark message to students and the Government that any further cuts in their funding will force them to reduce the places they have on offer, thereby increasing the points needed for entry, entire programmes being closed and even forced redundancies.
With a collective debt of over €30m, the colleges have been forced to reduce their costs by 6 per cent over the past two years, which was achieved through incentivised early retirement schemes and the non-replacement of staff.
However, the presidents all believe that the Government can no longer continue to speak of a knowledge economy and expanding access to university when they are "killing" the sector through cuts. They also said the issue of full student fees must again be put back on the agenda.
Outspoken DCU President Ferdinand von Prondzynski said he anticipated a further reduction in funding of at least 3 per cent next year, which he said would put the viability of universities into question.
"As it stands, quality is suffering badly -- any further cuts and universities will not be viable. We are facing having to restrict numbers or cutting programmes which means we could have to enter into forced redundancies, which could cause problems," he said.
He also sought to dismiss the idea that merging colleges would save money, pointing to several examples in the UK where costs have gone up following mergers.
NUI Maynooth president John Hughes echoed Professor von Prondzynski's comments, saying his staff numbers had been "cut back to the bone" and that discussions about how student numbers would be capped had begun.
"The issue has been discussed between the college presidents . . . and given the way things are going, and our fears of further reductions, we will be left with no option but to cap student numbers."
University of Limerick president Don Barry said that the big losers would be students as the quality of graduates coming out of universities would reduce significantly.
He said: "Reductions in state support have already had very significant negative effects. The projected cuts will do even more damage. Staff/student ratios will continue to decline to well below international norms.
"Reduced government funding will also inevitably lead to diminished service levels in key functions such as library, computing and student services."
Mr Barry also said that Ireland would continue to lag way behind international competitors as a result of the cuts. "The ability of the Irish university sector to deliver on its core mission of providing world-class education and cutting-edge research for the benefit of Irish society has been progressively undermined by repeated cuts," he added.
In response, a spokesman for Ms Coughlan told this newspaper that she was willing to meet the presidents to address their concerns but the bottom line was that Irish universities would have to do more with less because of the recession.
- DANIEL McCONNELL Chief Reporter
Originally published in
