Free fees see state giving more but universities getting less
Education Minister Mary Hanafin has accused two university heads of using misleading figures to create an impression of a funding crisis in third level.
Trinity provost Dr John Hegarty and UCD president Dr Hugh Brady stated in an article in The Irish Times that core funding per student had been reduced by over 33% since 1995. They claimed there was a "major funding deficit" facing Irish universities.
Minister Hanafin told the Oireachtas Education Committee, however, that the figures proffered by the two scholars had failed to include government funds given to colleges in lieu of fees, amounting to €326 million in 2007.
According to the Department of Education, when one includes funding in lieu of fees, university spending increased by 151% since 1997. It had increased from €675 million in 2005 to €836 million in 2008, an increase of some 24% since 2005, the Department said.
But a spokesman for the Irish University Association (IUA), the group representing the seven university presidents, pointed out that funding provided through the grant in lieu of fees "did not offset the cycle of reductions in the core grant per student over the last number of years".
It is understood that most of the seven universities now operate with a substantial budget deficit, totalling more than €25 million this year - and this situation is expected to deteriorate further next year. The large deficits highlighted the funding problems facing the sector, the spokesman for the IUA said.
"There is a widening gap between Government's ambitions for higher education and the day-to-day reality facing universities. We need the Minister and her department to engage constructively with us in addressing these problems before the situation deteriorates even further."
Speaking in the Dail, Labour's education spokesman Ruairi Quinn queried why some third-level institutions were receiving considerably lower general grants. Trinity College's grant had fallen from €131m to €96m, while Dublin City University's had fallen from €77m to €49m.
Minister Hanafin said that, under a new costs measurement operated by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), funding was still being assessed in co-operation with the third-level sector and some €400m had yet to be distributed. (Sources: Irish Times, Irish Independent)