Action is urgently required to meet challenge of rising education costs

A record 80,887 students applied to the nation’s third-level institutions this year and the majority will ultimately join the growing number of workers — presently over 50% — who boast a third-level education.

For a growing number, however, the latest figures only serve as more evidence of an unhealthy fixation on judging educational success against third-level attainment.

They point to very unfavourable comparisons between youth unemployment rates here and elsewhere in the EU and suggest a recalibration of educational success, not to the number who attain a third-level degree but rather to the number who enter employment.