IRELAND: Universities warn of severe impact of cuts

University presidents are considering a range of options - including the withdrawal of some third-level courses - amid growing anger about government cutbacks, reports The Irish Times. A special meeting of the seven university presidents heard that the 3% cut in payroll costs demanded by the Minister for Education, Batt O'Keeffe, would inevitably led to dramatic cuts in services for students.

The university presidents are set to outline the scale of the funding crisis in a formal letter to Mr O'Keeffe. The threat to cancel or trim courses for the academic year 2009-10 could be bad news for students. And university presidents are furious the third-level sector has been singled out for cutbacks by the new Minister.

A senior university source told The Irish Times: "There is real anger across the system. The funding situation is becoming unsustainable. We have already absorbed years of effective cutback in our core grant. The notion that we can just absorb the latest cutbacks is ludicrous."
Full report on The Irish Times site