TARGETS FOR the numbers of students from deprived backgrounds admitted by third-level colleges may not be realistic unless extra State funding is provided to meet those students’ needs, the president of Dublin City University has said.
Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski was responding to a report on proposals from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) that colleges that fail to meet such targets will be liable to have up to 10 per cent of their funding withdrawn.
“Students from disadvantaged backgrounds tend to have significant resourcing needs, and so giving us targets is well and good, but I think it’s very important that these students should be properly resourced,” he said.
Prof von Prondzynski said about 10 per cent of his own university’s annual student intake comes from such backgrounds, but the bursaries that fund them are raised through private donations.
“I think we’d need to talk to the HEA not just about targets but about how such intakes would be resourced and properly supported,” he said, adding that targets “may not be realistic” without extra financial support.
Under controversial proposals circulated by the HEA to college heads last January, up to 10 per cent of State funding will be withheld from a third-level institution unless it works to meet Government targets on access, skills needs, management reform and other areas.
On the broader question of funding for third level, Prof von Prondzynski said it was unlikely that the taxpayer could supply the sort of funds that would be needed to allow Irish colleges to compete with their international counterparts.
“I think if we are to be serious about resourcing third level to the extent that we’re competitive internationally, and that students get a quality education with great facilities, then we’re going to have to have far more resources available to us than we currently have,” he said.
Asked if that meant third-level fees, abolished in 1995, would have to be re-introduced, Prof von Prondzynski told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland: “I think sooner or later that nettle will have to be grasped, yes. I think if we’re to be realistic about international competitiveness, yes.”
Separately, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe will tomorrow launch a national access strategy for higher education.
The plan outlines the problem of current low rates of participation in third level by those from deprived backgrounds and sets targets to be met over the next five years to address the issue.
