Wealthy foreign students are not a priority

I NOTE with alarm the suggestion by Seán Kelly MEP (Letters, October 18) that we attempt to solve the problem of university fees by the admission of more foreign students.

Places in our universities are precious and essential to the wellbeing of Ireland as a nation as well as to the students as individuals. We cannot put wealthy foreign students in front of poor but intellectually able Irish students.

As a university, Trinity College Dublin welcomes foreign students as a matter of course, and has always done so. But we do so for their academic attainments — not for their wealth.

Our primary duty as an Irish university is to our young Irish students trying to make their way in a competitive world that is already sufficiently harsh.

Gerald Morgan

The Chaucer Hub

Trinity College

Dublin 2