Universities’ entry quota system is likely to prove a recipe for disaster

IF you have been reading recently about the salaries of Ireland’s university presidents you might not be feeling very well disposed to academics. For the record, they are all on between €200,000 and €300,000 a year and have a pay award of up to 19% pending.

There are generous perks on top and some have grand official residences thrown in as well. Your heart bleeds in the current climate.

But for an island of scholars, we actually treat them pretty shoddily. It’s not just that the average lecturer is paid peanuts compared with their potential earning power in the private sector. Nor is it the low priority given to third-level education generally by the political class, of which more later. Rather, the most immediate issue is a new directive from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) which could potentially imperil the already-compromised standards of Irish universities.