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Home Page > News > Government forcing emigration with college cuts warns Students Union

Government forcing emigration with college cuts warns Students Union

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral Staff Writer

Published Tuesday, November 15, 2011, 7:47 AM

Updated Tuesday, November 29, 2011, 4:48 PM

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Union of Students in Ireland demonstration next to the famine memorial in Dublin

Photo by USI

Thousands of Ireland’s finest young brains will be forced to emigrate if the Government cuts all grants to postgraduate students in next month’s budget.

That’s the grim warning from the Union of Students in Ireland after the Department of Education failed to deny weekend reports that such cuts are on the cards for new postgraduates from next year on.

USI president Gary Redmond said: “I am dismayed and shocked at the proposal. There is not even any pretence at fairness in this proposal.

“A student, no matter how talented, would not be able to continue in education any further than their own financial resources would permit”

Redmond’s union will hold a national protest against education cuts in Dublin on Wednesday.

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He added: “The programme for government promises a surgeon’s scalpel would be taken to waste and inefficiency in higher education. Instead, a butcher’s cleaver appears to have been taken to student supports such as the maintenance grant.

“USI is urging every Government backbench TD who less than a year ago asked students and families for their votes in exchange for a promise to protect education, to publicly call on the Minister for Education and Skills to withdraw this proposal from consideration.”

The Student boss also said that an undergraduate degree is no longer enough to gain employment in many professions.

“Families who are not in a position to pay fees for postgraduate courses and pay for other associated costs would find it impossible for their children to progress to postgraduate courses,” he told the Irish Times.

“The number of students able to progress to Master’s and PhD level would plummet, and some of the most talented young people would be forced to emigrate, to work or to further their education elsewhere.

“The measure is short-sighted. Investing in education is vital to building long-term, sustainable economic development. This Government, and its predecessor, have spoken at length about the need to build a knowledge economy, the value of education and the need for Ireland to increase its RD capacity.

“This proposal would mean higher education in Ireland would return to being the preserve of the wealthy elite. The Minister simply must reconsider this proposal.”

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greensod | Dec 01, 2011, 12:15 AM EST

These young men and women will help advance and build countries around the world,nothing has changed and will not change in Ireland,until Sein Fein is the ruleing party in the government.

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RedBranch | Nov 30, 2011, 12:28 PM EST

Go they will have to, no doubt. As with the previous generation the best we can do is provide them with an education that enables them to get a good start abroad. The stunt of posing well fed, educated young men and women by the famine memorial is poor taste and an inappropriate comparison.

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Searlit | Nov 30, 2011, 12:03 PM EST

Maybe the students will have to start a grassroots movement to open their own university. There must be plenty of retired or unemployed professors and teachers around that would like to use their skills to help.

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mcdolan | Nov 17, 2011, 09:23 AM EST

I heartily agree that this rumoured cut in post graduate support is penny-wise and pound-foolish. We need to keep the best educated here in Ireland for the future and not be sending them off to work elsewhere.

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fuiseog | Nov 16, 2011, 10:52 PM EST

This is nothing new. In 1960, my self and 50,0000 others were forced from our homes,families and friends, by misery and hopelessness. the difference between then and now was that we were of use as a source of cheap labour, in the growing economies of the US and England. Now, with the event of globalisation, we Irish exiles are no longer a useful commoddity. The young Irish of today should stay home and join the youth movements of the world, and find an alternative to the neo-con, con game.

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