Time to confront new reality in colleges

THIRD-LEVEL college leaders have repeatedly warned that the current funding model is unsustainable and will negatively influence colleges’ ability to maintain or improve educational standards.

The news that third-level institutions will have to, in just over 10 years, cope with more than 45,000 extra students each year adds urgency to the need to make some hard, probably divisive decisions.

In an ideal world, everyone would have free access to education but, as Mattie Ross observed in the Cohen brothers’ classic-in-waiting True Grit, “there’s nothing free in this world but the grace of God”.

We have one of the highest rates of transfer from second- to third-level education in Europe, and current trends and population growth will see enrolments jump from 165,000 to 212,000 by 2028. An expert group will report to Government this year on how best to fund third-level education and it is likely the hugely improved earnings potential of graduates when compared with less qualified workers will be influential. Graduates earn twice as much as someone who leaves formal education after the Leaving Certificate.

Whatever transpires, it is likely to be another step along the sobering road winnowing rights from privileges, but one principle must stand — no one should be denied a third-level education because of their economic circumstances. Poverty cannot be again used, as it was in the past, to deny potential.