THE country’s seven universities are being forced to cut jobs and reduce services because the Government has not provided up to €40 million needed for pay increases.

THE Lisbon Strategy signed by European leaders in March 2000 set out to make the EU the most dynamic and competitive economy in the world by 2010.

WORK on around 50 new primary schools could begin next year with the extra funding allocated in the Estimates, Education Minister Noel Dempsey said last night.

GIVEN the importance of university education as a springboard to the future for many of our young people, the steady deterioration of funding for this vital sector is extremely worrying.

UNIVERSITIES have to find €90 million a year to make up for the drop in Government funding since college fees were abolished.

The heads of Ireland’s universities have called for more Government funding following the publication of a study highlighting a fall in such funding between 1995 and 2001.

THE heads of the seven universities have called on the Government to ensure a higher education review focuses strongly on redressing cutbacks.

REINTRODUCING college fees could harm the prospects of improved access to third level education, the head of Irish universities has warned.

PEOPLE who can afford to pay college fees should be made to do so, according to the head of the country’s Institutes of Technology.

A SHARP increase in college registration charges could lead to some students failing to return for the new term, union leaders warned yesterday.