USI: Fall in rankings for Irish universities due to cuts and fall in staff numbers

Update 3pm: The fall in QS World University Rankings for all except one Irish university is due to budget cuts, rising student numbers and high student-teacher ratios, according to the Union of Students in Ireland (USI).

The USI said that State funding has been cut by a third from €1.4bn to €923m since 2008, and staff numbers have fallen from over 9,000 to below 8,000 while student numbers have increased by nearly 40,000 to more than 190,000.