The universities have laid the foundation of our knowledge society and economy. It's now high time to have a proper debate on how to fund them, writes Peter Sutherland

HUGH BRADY and John Hegarty have done us all a real service with their recent and jointly-penned opinion piece in The Irish Times on funding universities.

Their message is a stark one: unless we get our heads out of the sand on the issue of university funding, we risk serious damage to the quality of our third-level education.

The universities have laid the foundation of Ireland's knowledge society and economy - the foundation of all our futures, in fact. But if real progress is to be made and sustained we need, even at this early stage of the conversation, to get a lot more real.

All in the garden of Irish higher education is most definitely not rosy - particularly when looked at in the cold light of global comparisons.

It is useful at the outset of any discussion or debate to ask the question: what is our objective here? The objective in relation to Irish universities has to be the provision of a truly world-class Irish higher education sector. This will demand a much enhanced responsiveness to the reality of international competition, compared to the current and - let me be frank - depressingly insular debate about whether my microscopically small, in global terms, institution should carry the same badges as that of my similarly sized neighbour.

Because if, as I shall argue below, the Government needs to get real about funding, then Irish institutions of higher education need to get real about their actual standing, looked at from a global perspective. Instead of recognising the sober reality that we cannot have, much less sustain, seven world-class universities in Ireland while backing some winners, it seems we are now embarked on a futile debate as to whether we should have one, two, three or 14 more.

It will be a hollow achievement indeed to have 176,000 students in higher education by 2016 if our brightest and best continue in increasing numbers to leave these shores to study at the best universities abroad - where the academic work with a real global impact will be done.

This is a consummation devoutly to be abhorred, but no one should be in any doubt that it is an all too likely prospect unless we get real - as country, society, economy and Government - about the required investment. The competition is certain to increase; our bright young people are very unlikely to become less ambitious or discriminating in the coming decade.

They will know if we've settled for second-best. They won't hang around.

In summary, we have to change a mindset that focuses on broad numbers, to the constant exclusion of promoting exceptions and excellence.

The exceptions - and the means of keeping them at home and fostering their abilities - will be central to our shared future.

The real tragedy about missing the current opportunity to invest in excellence in Irish higher education is that there really never has been a better time to be Irish. Wherever one goes today, being Irish is a badge of honour. We are, undoubtedly, privileged inheritors of a regard that comes from the selfless service of so many missionaries and, more recently, NGOs, of which we can legitimately be very proud.

We should recognise, nonetheless, that this esteem will be preserved only if we sustain the best of our values and develop the best of our talents. The truly excellent university will foster talents in the natural sciences and the capacity to contribute to economic growth that comes from this, while also nurturing and sustaining the best of our values through the humanities.

And it must do this in a new, more truly global fashion. We need a far greater percentage of international students studying here, not only as a testimony to the educational good that we provide but also as a continuing stimulus and challenge to our own current mindset.

The Government and policymakers in Ireland are in a uniquely privileged position in historic terms. Whatever the current hiccup - and the overstatement of its significance by some university-based commentators who should know better - the fact is that the Government now has resources to invest in education that counterparts of other decades, such as the government of which I formed part in the 1980s, could only dream.

It is a sobering reality to contemplate how little, despite all its noble rhetoric, the Irish State has actually invested in education.

Post-independence Ireland was very happy to accept the largesse of the various religious denominations who, effectively, provided the entire plant for primary and secondary education, free gratis. Latterly, Atlantic Philanthropies and its progenitor, the great Chuck Feeney, have played a secular version of the same role in the university sector.

Religious and secular benefactors alike are owed a huge debt of gratitude; my only reservation lies in pondering the lesson which State and the Government have drawn from this.

And when I say "State and Government", let me be clear that I am hoping for an all-party approach to this crucial question; it is hard to see how a truly positive outcome can be achieved if the future of Irish higher education becomes the subject and object of auction politics.

In entering this debate, I am making an act of trust that we all have a shared objective of the provision of a truly world-class Irish Higher Education sector. We do need, however, to get real quickly about the funding elephant in the corner.

We need to invest on a sustained basis at a level that at least matches our international competitors. To fall behind countries such as Denmark and Scotland, as has been pointed out to have occurred, is simply not acceptable.

We need the proverbial full and frank discussion on, inter alia, full-cost funding per student, and therefore fees; tax-incentivisation/ loans/education credits; charges for clearly identifiable services; an end to the contradiction of reciting pieties about access while refusing to adequately fund part-time (a now anachronistic term in any case) students. We need either to invest more or free up the universities to increase their own revenue.

We must know better and do more. Of one thing I am sure - the status quo is not an option.

Peter Sutherland, a former attorney general and EU commissioner, is also chairman of the London School of Economics

University challenged: vision and reality

The vision:What is the challenge set by Government for the universities?

To produce a new breed of highly creative, innovative and flexible graduates from its third level programmes that will be vital if the comparative advantage currently enjoyed by Ireland's industrial base is to be sustained.

To develop a dynamic fourth level system of PhD training and vibrant research culture that will spawn the PhD graduates, knowledge, discoveries, intellectual property and inventions that will drive the knowledge economy and knowledge society.

The reality:the funding crisis

Virtually all of the seven universities face a budget deficit this year, totalling almost €25m for the sector.

Direct Government support per student fell by €11,240 per student between 1995 and 2001, a shortfall of 18 per cent in real terms.

Further cuts in subsequent years resulted in a reduction in the core grant funding per student in real terms of 32 per cent for the period from 1995 to 2005.

Some €50m taken out of the third level budget in 2002-2003 has never been replaced.

There is no annual fund for building and refurbishment of undergraduate teaching facilities. Funds intended to support teaching must be diverted for these services.

The State supports the so-called "direct costs" of research (eg test-tubes, chemicals, etc). But it does not pay for the full "indirect costs" of research (eg heat, light, waste, support costs such as HR, accounting, etc).

As a result, some of the core government grant which was intended to fund teaching activities has to be diverted to pay for these indirect research costs.

The staff-student ratio in Irish universities (1:16) is vastly inferior to that enjoyed by relevant European competitors (1:7).

The IT infrastructure is vastly inferior to that available in the UK and most other developed European countries.

The quality of Irish undergraduate facilities such as buildings and laboratories is being steadily eroded. The international norm for maintenance is in the region of 1.5 per cent per annum of the college's insurance value. The resources invested in Irish universities is approximately one tenth of this sum (eg 0.15 per cent).

And the answer?

The landmark OECD Review 2004 on the third-level sector here (commissioned by the Department of Education and Science) concluded that the Irish Universities require a "quantum increase" in funding to address the funding deficit.

The HEA-commissioned report on the Financial Position of the Irish Universities in 2003 and a raft of other expert reviews drew similar conclusions

Seán Flynn