UCD and Trinity College warn of major funding crisis

Ireland's two leading universities are reportedly warning that a funding crisis is undermining the Government's claims to be establishing a top-class knowledge-driven economy.

Reports this morning say UCD and Trinity College have come together to highlight a 33% fall in core funding per student since 1995 and a €25m budget deficit at the country's seven universities.

They also say staff-to-student ratios in competing states like Denmark are four times better than those in Ireland.

The president of UCD, Dr Hugh Brady, and the provost of Trinity College, Dr John Hegarty, say this flies in the face of government rhetoric about a third-level system driving the development of a knowledge society.

Four years ago, the OECD warned that Ireland's universities needed a major increase in funding to compete internationally.

However, Dr Brady and Dr Hegarty say the funding gap has actually been widening rather than getting narrower.