‘Elitist’ remarks spark fury in colleges

MORE than two dozen academics have branded as “outrageous” the president of UCC’s comment that the pressure of providing access for disadvantaged students was triggering an exodus of top students to study abroad.

The price of widening third-level access was the inability of colleges to provide the best education for top students, Dr Michael Murphy said this week.

However in a letter in today’s Irish Examiner, the 25 academics said: “For the president of an Irish university to suggest, based on what he terms ‘extensive anecdotal evidence’ that there is a ‘requirement to re-balance’ resources currently used to improve third-level access so as to support the most talented students is outrageous.”