Sir, – For all those proposing to fund the clearly identified needs of third-level education from the general tax pool, could they please identify what taxes they propose to increase, and by how much, or what other areas of public spending they propose to cut, and by how much, in order to find the additional funds? – Yours, etc,
DANIEL SULLIVAN,
Marino,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Before we consider ways of pumping more money we don’t have into third-level education, we should stop and consider what value for money we are getting.
Whereas a modern health service can certainly waste vast sums of taxpayers’ money, at least it must employ some talented health professionals. No-one expects patients to cure one another.
However, the modern university increasingly gets students to educate one another, while spending vast sums on elaborate management structures, unnecessary sports facilities, luxury student accommodation, and various prestige projects that have little or nothing to do with education.
Meanwhile, the number of tenured professional academics employed by the universities continues to decrease, to be replaced by low-paid, postgraduate and post-doctoral students on short-term contracts. Much less than half of a university’s payroll is spent on educators.
How can we expect to place our children into a holiday camp for four unproductive years and expect it not to cost a fortune, and hence become a luxury eventually only available to the very rich?
Getting taxpayers to support such a system has become the single most effective mechanism for transferring wealth and opportunity from the poor to the rich. Are we sure we want to continue to do that?
The modern university is an unsustainable absurdity. The problem is that this is a global problem, and hence not one that our own politicians are likely to confront any time soon.
However, change is coming. Consider the discipline of software engineering. In the not too distant future a four-year degree will look like a crazy waste of money, when basically the same skills can be acquired by the well-motivated student at a fraction of the cost and time from a private organisation like the Code Institute, which was recently funded by Enterprise Ireland, as reported in your newspaper (“Education technology firm raises €500,000 to expand overseas”, July 8th). – Yours, etc,
Dr MIKE SCOTT,
Ballybough,
Dublin 3.
Sir, – Education should be the job of colleges (and schools) and should be more broad-based than simply preparation for trade and commerce; we need scientists, educators, administrators, as well as crass commerce. However, it appears that the right-wing Government and narrow, conservative business groups seem to believe that colleges should simply be training centres. Companies such as Aer Lingus and ESB took the long view and provided training in the specific skills they needed and that skill-base filtered to the wider economy. Where are the companies providing specific training?
Everyone now expects to recruit fully trained employees straight from college, but in a fast-changing economy, how can colleges be expected to constantly change a three-year or four-year programme at the pace needed by “industry”?
Education gave old fogies like me the skills to adapt to the new environments we found as the companies we worked for changed in the directions they were driven and at the pace they needed to survive. Education is really the country’s marketing, research and development department; please don’t turn it into the production department. – Yours, etc,
JOHN McENEANEY,
Celbridge,
Co Kildare.
Sir, – The release of the Cassells report presents a new and timely opportunity to consider funding of third-level education and investment in our nation’s future. Among its findings, the report makes clear that publicly funded education is viable and possible, validating the position held by the student movement for decades.
What is not viable is a new attempt to introduce a massive income-contingent loan scheme that has been shown to be a failure when implemented in the UK and Australia. The maintenance of the “free fees” scheme, which forces students to choose between staying in college and eating, is also not a viable option.We are representatives of the vast majority of students in Ireland – students keen to gain skills and qualifications and play our part in building Ireland’s future. We believe that the future of Ireland as a researching, skills-generating nation can be assured by a real and full-throated investment in third-level education. We will work towards this goal in the coming weeks and ask readers to join our campaign.
We are calling on the Oireachtas committee to choose the fully publicly funded option put forward by the Cassells report as the only option to enable social mobility, break poverty traps and empower the youth of this island. – Yours, etc,
ANNIE HOEY,
President of the
Union of Students in Ireland;
FERGAL McFERRAN,
President,
Nation Union of Students –
Union of Students in Ireland;
JIMMY McGOVERN,
President, NUI Galway
Students’ Union;
KIERAN McNULTY,
President,
Trinity College Dublin
Students’ Union;
KEVIN RONAN,
President,
Athlone Institute
of Technology
Students’ Union;
LORNA FITZPATRICK,
President, Institute
of Technology Carlow
Students’ Union;
MICHELLE BYRNE,
President, Waterford
Institute of Technology
Students’ Union;
ADAM POLLOCK, President of Strandmillis Students’ Union; STEVE CLIFFORD, President of ITT Students’ Union; SHANE FALVEY, President of CITSU Students’ Union; JASON AUGHNEY, President of ITB Students’ Union; SOPHIE ALLEN-BARRETT, President of CDEF Students’ Union; MARIA MOONEY, President of St. Mary’s Students’ Union; COLM SKEHAN, Deputy President LIT Tipperary Students’ Union; AMY KELLY, President of GMIT Students’ Union; JESSICA WALL, President of IT Tallaght Students’ Union; AARON LAWLESS, President of DkIT Students’ Union; CILLIN FOLAN, President of ITS Students’ Union; BONI ODOEMENE, President of DIT Students’ Union; CAOIMHE GUINNANE, Deputy President LIT Moylish Students’ Union; DYLAN KEHOE, President of DCU Students’ Union; COLUM MACKEY, President of UU Students’ Union; EOLANN SHEEHAN, President of UCC Students’ Union; SEÁN FEARON, President QUB Students’ Union; DILLON GRACE, President of Maynooth University Students’ Union; ADAM CLARKE, President of Carlow College Students’ Union; DYLAN McGOWAN, President of LYIT Students’ Union; PHILIP DESMOND, President of LSAD Students’ Union; STEPHEN CLEARY, President of NCI Students’ Union; ALICE HARTIGAN, President IADT Students’ Union.