Anger as funding cut by 'blinkered mindset'
Friday November 19th 2004
UNIVERSITIES and Institutes of Technology have expressed dismay at the level of funding awarded to them for day-to-day spending next year.
Universities say they have suffered a cut for the third successive year, which will worsen their "already mediocre international standing and competitiveness".
The 6.3pc increase awarded is 3.2pc short of projected 9.5pc rise in "standstill costs" for 2005, and represents a cumulative 14.5pc cut in core State funding in three years, said the Conference of the Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU).
They said the Minister for Education and Science, Mary Hanafin, the university system and the country's future had been "short-changed" by a "blinkered, expenditure-control mindset".
Dr Hugh Brady, president of University College Dublin (UCD), said he was "bitterly disappointed" and said "the lack of any real investment in higher education by the Government is tantamount to ripping up and rejecting" the recent OECD Report calling for increased funding for the sector.
The Institutes of Technology said the increase in current spending would "barely allow existing activities to continue and made to provision for spending on strategic projects."
CHIU accused the Government of "defying" the recommendations of the OECD and claimed that there was a "serious failure of co-ordination and oversight".
Rejecting the criticism, the minister said the increase was a "significant development" following on from a zero increase last year.
She said she recognised some colleges were engaged in a reform process and she would be working with those to see how they could be supported.
Katherine Donnelly
© Irish Independent http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ & http://www.unison.ie/
