Just €14m to deal with extra students

Just over one third of the €36.5m extra being invested by the Government in higher education this year is going directly into helping deal with extra students.

The additional funding was announced in Budget 2017 last October by Education Minister Richard Bruton, but he only yesterday outlined a full breakdown of how it is to be spent.

It includes €14m being allocated directly to account for rising enrolments in around 30 publicly funded third-level institutions. The Department of Education said this is based on an expected increase of 1,500 students over last year’s numbers.