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20 March
Student tuition fees back on the agenda
Will Irish students go 'over the border'?
by SoftwareGuru
Tuesday 17th March 2009
In the current economic climate most Irish companies and businesses are faced with having to reduce their prices so as to maintain customer spending.
For example, the cost of buying a car has been reduced significantly due to a huge drop in numbers sold. Everywhere you look, shops are relying on sales to keep businesses alive.
Yet, where there is demand, there is also the opportunity to increase your prices. The cost of university education in Ireland is therefore about to increase.
The hypocrisy lies in that while education cuts are being put into action, the top 50 earners in Ireland's cash-strapped universities are sharing a massive €10m pay bonanza.
The response to growing demand appears to be simple: if you want in, pay up.
Should Irish Universities really be paying out lavish pay packages to an elite few during these times of economic hardship and cutbacks?
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More pressure on parents?
Earlier this week the Irish Independent newspaper ran an article debating the impact of any proposed tuition fee policy.
Logic would suggest that the long term health of the economy requires talent from all backgrounds to be nurtured. Low-income families should not have to deal with financial barriers to education and any return to tuition fees should be avoided.
Exactly how cash-strapped are Irish Universities?
Could it possibly be the case that universities are taking unfair advantage of their position in the education service market?
After enjoying many years of prosperity in Ireland during the Celtic Tiger era, parents across the country have every right to feel swindled by those controlling the state purse strings.
Parents are now expected to pay even more to educate their children, in all levels of education, during a time of huge job losses.
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Long term vision required.
On the one hand our leaders are telling us to be wary of our finances and to live within our means.
On the other, the first thing students who wish to enhance their career prospects are confronted with at the age of 17 or 18, is the prospect of €64,000 worth of student debt and being told by society that such a scenario is OK.
Is it just me or does anyone else think we're sending out a mixed message?
All of this is taking place during a period that historians are going to look back at and wonder did the people at the turn of the century realise how much the digital economy was going to change their careers and lives.
Failure to adequately invest in the knowledge economy now will prove a lot more costly in the long term.
Whether the present government can show leadership in this respect, remains to be seen.
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Posted by
admin
at
16:49
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