Cuts a threat to economic development

GIVEN the importance of university education as a springboard to the future for many of our young people, the steady deterioration of funding for this vital sector is extremely worrying.

So acute is the financial crisis that the heads of the country’s universities have called for increased Exchequer funding in higher education, an area which can aptly be described as the engine room of the country’s development.

They have warned that unless present trends are reversed, the ambitions of Government to put Ireland’s educational system in the top 20% of OECD countries will be dashed.