‘Graduates need skills that last a lifetime’

A university president has warned education policy needs to focus on producing well-rounded and flexible graduates rather than those that specifically meet the short-term needs of a troubled economy.

NUI Maynooth president Professor Philip Nolan said the focus must be on giving graduates the capacity to analyse and reason; to adapt to challenge and change; and the confidence and capacity to make their world a better place.

“The last thing we need in Irish higher education is a misdirected and ill-conceived shift in education and research policy to meet the immediate needs of the economy,” he said at the launch of a strategy for education and research at NUIM until 2017.