The smart money says there is no university funding crisis in Ireland

There are 9,443 universities in 206 countries. All of ours are comfortably in the top 10%, writes Fergus Finlay.

A NUMBER of years ago, I conducted a series of mock interviews. The interviewees were all girls preparing for their Leaving Certs, and the purpose was to prepare them for the world outside. They all had a CAO points target. Except one girl.

“I don’t want to go to university,” she told us. “I’ve never wanted to go to university. I want to be a beautician, and I’m hoping you can help me to go about it.” As she gazed at us expectantly, we were all stumped.