Colette Browne
Do we want a college system that spits out worker drones?
AFUNDING crisis is endemic in the third-level education sector and the Government is increasingly looking to the private sector for a bailout.
Tens of thousands of students all over the country are today celebrating the start of a new phase of their lives – their formal entry into third-level education.
Yesterday, when CAO points were released, the most notable aspect was the increase for courses associated with the growing economy – construction, architecture, law and business.
Like any other industry, third-level is responsive to economic indices – but the question that can increasingly be asked is whether industry is driving these changes or whether it’s students?
The underlying problem is money.
Despite Government ministers routinely bragging that Ireland is a knowledge economy, third-level institutions have been starved of investment for years.
Between 2008 and 2015, funding for third-level institutions was gouged by 33pc even as student numbers increased by 22pc and staffing levels reduced by 12pc.
This has resulted in Ireland boasting among the worst student-staff ratios in the OECD.
While the OECD average is a ratio of 16:1, in Ireland the figure stands at 20:1, and is likely to get much worse very quickly.
Over the next decade, the numbers attending third-level are forecast to grow by nearly one-third.
Meanwhile, last year an expert report on third-level funding said the current funding system was “not fit for purpose”.
“Funding pressures are now seriously threatening quality within the system and the ability of our sons and daughters to gain the knowledge and develop the capabilities that will enable us to realise our national goals,” it concluded.
However, the report’s three recommendations were politically toxic – the introduction of a student loan system, with repayments linked to graduate salaries; the continuation of the current student contribution system with higher State investment; or an entirely free system fully funded by the State.
Given the instability of the current minority Government, no major changes are going to happen to the funding model for third-level for the foreseeable future.
Which is why the Government has now decided that the best way forward, in the immediate future, is hitting up the private sector.
A little-discussed aspect of the report was a suggestion that funding could be acquired from the private sector through an increase in the National Training Fund levy. Currently, employers contribute €360m per annum to this fund, but very little is directed to higher education.
Eager to try to fill the massive financial hole in the sector, Education Minister Richard Bruton wants employers to contribute more to this fund and, in return, the education system will deliver skilled staff to these employers.
Earlier this year, Mr Bruton published a consultation paper on a proposed exchequer-employer investment mechanism which, it is hoped, will provide €200m in additional funding.
As with any investment, there would be strings attached.
The paper assures employers that they “can have confidence that they can influence the direction of higher education provision, that providers will be responsive to their emerging needs and that the required skills will be delivered in an efficient and effective manner”.
But the extent to which private industry will be funding and directing the development of third-level education is something that should be the subject of a more widespread debate.
Do we want a third-level education system whose primary purpose is the creation of
Do we want a third-level education system whose primary purpose is the creation of well-rounded individuals with the freedom to pursue study in the subject of their choice, or are we focused on spitting out worker drones?
well-rounded individuals with the freedom to pursue study in the subject of their choice, or are we instead focused on spitting out worker drones who can slot neatly into positions in a multinational company?
If industry has the power to seriously influence and drive the provision of third-level education, will investment in the arts and social sciences further wither while science and engineering departments see a boom?
To some extent, this is already happening.
Between 2000 and 2013, 82pc of research funding was awarded to science, technology, engineering and related subjects.
A research prioritisation report, released in 2012, identified 14 priority areas of research, which were all related to tech, agriculture and manufacturing.
There was no room for any investment in the arts, education or humanities.
If the Government was seeking additional investment from private industry in the context of a wider plan in which a stable funding model for the sector generally was also being pursued, then maybe the plans would be insignificant. Growth industries, like tech and clean energy, are going to need staff in the future and there is no reason why Irish students shouldn’t fill those vacancies.
The problem is that, over time, the whole purpose and definition of education, as a public good in and of itself, has changed so that now its primary purpose is seen as producing workers for niche industries to slot into entry-level positions in multinational corporations.
Success is measured as a function of usefulness to commercial interests and not in the ability of universities to produce well-read critical thinkers, capable of independent thought.
With a scarcity of funding in the third-level sector, all available resources are being directed towards STEM with little left in the pot for the study of other subjects, which may not be deemed as useful to the market economy but are nonetheless important in the context of academic pursuits of knowledge.
Given that it has been estimated that the sector needs an additional €1bn over the next 10 years just to stand still, and there is no credible plan from Government on how to bridge this gap, it is likely that the influence of private industry is about to become much more powerful.
After all, he who pays the piper calls the tune.