Ireland has second worst staff-student ratio in higher education in OECD

Ireland’s higher education staff-to-student ratio stands at one staff member to every 23 students, while the OECD average is one to 17. File picture

Ireland has one of the worst staff-to-student ratios in higher education out of almost 40 countries in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Only Colombia has a worse student-staff ratio in tertiary education than Ireland out of 38 countries analyzed by the body as part of ‘Education at a Glance 2023’. Ireland’s higher education staff-to-student ratio stands at one staff member to every 23 students, while the OECD average is one to 17.

The report also shows that Ireland’s share of per-capita GDP allocated to education is under 15%, which is significantly less than the OECD average of 27%.

Its publication has prompted the Irish Federation of University Teachers to criticise the Government for “the continued failure” to adequately fund higher education.

“We are not just concerned with the levels of investment in higher education," IFUT general secretary, Frank Jones said. “We wanted to see what the OECD report told us about working and learning conditions in the sector.”

Ireland was also found to have one of the highest rates of students finishing secondary school education and is one of a small number of countries to achieve near-universal school completion amongst younger adults.  

Ireland was also one of a "handful" of countries where spending on childcare fell as a result of the rising number of children. The number of children enrolled was found to have outstripped the increase in expenditure in Ireland, resulting in expenditure per child falling by 4% between 2015 and 2020. 

Spending on education

Meanwhile, Ireland was found to spend less on education as a percentage of its gross domestic product (GDP) than almost all OECD countries. However, the report noted that a large share of total government expenditure devoted to education does not necessarily translate into a large share relative to a country’s GDP.

In Ireland's case, it allocates 12% of its total government expenditure towards primary to tertiary education, which is more than the OECD average of 10%. Relative to its GDP, this expenditure is relatively low at 3.2% compared to the OECD average of 4.7%. 

The report notes that this could be linked to Ireland’s GDP being inflated by the large number of tech companies that have their legal headquarters here for tax purposes. 

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The three teachers' unions have called on the Government to provide further investment in education as part of the upcoming budget. “Large class sizes, insufficient staffing, and inadequate classrooms and buildings must be addressed," said ASTI president Geraldine O’Brien.

TUI President David Waters said: "Inadequate teaching allocations to schools and the failure to restore middle-management positions have long been identified by TUI as key drivers of the current teacher recruitment and retention crisis, so this continuing failure to invest appropriately has had extremely damaging effects on the profession and ultimately on the service to students." 

Primary and special schools are already under financial strain two weeks into the academic year, according to INTO general secretary John Boyle. "To plan properly, schools must be provided with adequate funding and certainty regarding payment dates prior to the start of the school year."