Colleges facing deficits of €45m

UNIVERSITIES here are facing deficits of about €45 million, college bosses have admitted.

Tough measures being introduced to stem losses include cutting staff and teaching numbers, university heads admitted to an Oireachtas committee.

Six of the state’s seven colleges conceded finances would be in the red for the coming year.

University College Cork has already accumulated deficits of €13m, while the University of Limerick is facing projected losses of €6m.

NUI Maynooth expects deficits of €5m this year, while University College Galway expect losses of €5.2m.

The country’s largest college, University College Dublin, has accumulated losses of €15m.

Trinity College Dublin — which is are now in the list of the world’s top 50 universities — currently has no deficit but expects to make losses of a few million euro, its chief academic officer Professor Paddy Prendergast admitted.

Dublin City University has no deficit but expects it to be a “challenging year”.

Universities are claiming that the core funding for each student between 2001 and 2006 has fallen by 17%.

But Fine Gael’s Brian Hayes said that claim contradicted Department of Education figures which say funding in the same period for colleges had increased from €538m to €753m.

It is thought the department figures take account of grants in lieu of fees.

Irish Universities Association chief executive Ned Costello said colleges needed to be funded on a par with international third-level institutes if they were to compete with them.

“The system as a whole is significantly under-funded,” he told members of the Oireachtas committee.

But Senator Fidelma Healy Eames warned the losses must be affecting education. “I’m not convinced teaching isn’t suffering,” she insisted.

UL president Professor Don Barry admitted that in order to reduce costs colleges hired fewer staff and had larger classes.

The cost of increased research in colleges was an added financial burden, added UCD’s vice president Dr Philip Nolan.

NUI Galway president, Dr James Burden said there was also the cost of upgrading buildings. The west of Ireland college is currently being forced to use a 200-year-old building for its engineering department.

DCU president Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski said his college had held back on investment to save cutting frontline staff when trying to keep within budget.

One building has water coming in through the roofs and ceilings but the college can afford to do nothing, the college chief said.