Students badly hit by counselling cuts

Beset by gnawing worries of failing an exam or of not finding a job here in Ireland’s ongoing economic crisis, and with their peers leaving in droves to seek work abroad, it is not surprising that depression and anxiety are increasing at an alarming rate among third-level college students.

Contrary to Finance Minister Michael Noonan’s glib description of the tsunami of emigration as a “lifestyle choice”, for the vast majority of students who depart this country every year, going abroad is no holiday. Tens of thousands of young people who leave these shores to seek work in Australia, Canada, Britain, and other European countries, give the lie to that flippant portrayal.

For students now seeking academic and technical qualifications in colleges up and down the country, the challenge is daunting and explains why so many are now turning to campus counsellors for help.