Sir, – The news that Trinity College Dublin has slipped in the latest set of world university rankings (News, October 12th) is disappointing but not surprising to any member of the academic body: it reflects the short-sighted financial and cultural approach the Irish government has adopted towards third-level education over the last two decades. The encouragement to universities to act as businesses to generate more income by unsustainable growth of numbers (with a cynical targeting of overseas students) is a failed social experiment which has led to the casualisation of staff, a consumer-based approach to education, the temptation of questionable sponsorship, the short-changing of the domestic and overseas student body and the very real threat (if not reality) of grade inflation. The acquiescence of universities to the Government’s Higher Education Authority Bill 2022 will only compound these ills. – Yours, etc,
SARAH ALYN STACEY, FTCD
Head of the Department of French,
Trinity College Dublin,
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Dublin 2.