Academic warns against using third-level only for workforce

The treatment of third-level education just as a way to build the country’s workforce could prove costly in the long run, an Irish-based international academic has warned.

Professor Carl Anders Säfström from Maynooth University Social Science Institute (MUSSI) said attempts to cater higher education in Ireland towards industry’s labour needs have often come at the expense of the humanities, because precedence is given to STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) subjects.

“While science and technology are important, this puts Ireland’s culture of literature and arts at risk — the same literary tradition that has played such an important role in the formation of Irish society,” he said.