Third level education is not for everyone

The wisdom of pushing up student participation rates must be questioned, says Education Correspondent Niall Murray

Many sides to the university funding debate rightly point to the fact that the international rankings do not give anything like the full picture of activities in our third-level institutions.

But what they do illustrate very well are just some of the effects of cuts to funding in Irish higher education; and the need, not just to restore it to pre-recession levels but to increase it beyond what it has ever been in the past.