IRELAND: Universities financially unviable, say presidents

02 May 2010

Student fees are back on the agenda, it seems, and this time they might just be back with a vengeance, writes Daniel OCarroll for the independent Cork Student News. Presidents of various Irish universities joined last weekend to criticise the Greens' move last year to block a re-introduction of higher education fees and warned the public that the quality of education on offer at universities is seriously suffering as a result.

Five of the seven university presidents told the Sunday Independent that universities were on the verge of insolvency, that their top academics were leaving and that the quality of teaching was going downhill.

They added that much of the progress made during the boom years was being undone at a disconcertingly rapid pace. The combined deficit of universities now stood at a whopping EUR32 million, the presidents added, and the funding level was now at "a critical stage". Fees would simply have to return.
Full report on the Cork Student News site

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