Sir, – It is indeed dispiriting to read that the forthcoming report into higher education funding may recommend nothing more imaginative than a student loans scheme.
Surely before any such scheme is considered, a transparent and publicly available account of the current use of all State funding in higher education should be published. In any case, if proponents of a student loans scheme were to look beyond the English-speaking world, they would find interesting and useful examples of best practice.
To take just one of countless examples, in a state-funded university in Paris of just 14,000 students, which has 21 Nobel laureates and 10 Fields medal-winners for mathematics among its teaching staff, the total cost of fees and loans to be paid by its students and graduates is zero. – Yours, etc,
GRACE NEVILLE,
Sunday’s Well,
Cork.