Education Minister Richard Bruton tells committee to address third-level funding

Education Minister Richard Bruton wants the Oireachtas Education Committee to urgently consider the question of how to find the €600m extra a year needed to fund third-level colleges.

However, he is giving no clues if he will help address shortfalls in Budget 2017 next month, in which he is under growing pressure to begin reversing several years of public funding cuts to the sector.

In this week’s Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings, University College Dublin dropped out of the top 200. NUI Galway and Royal College of Surgeons improved to join UCD in the top 250, and other lower-ranked institutions maintaining their positions.