USI March

Union of Students in Ireland are holding a march on Wednesday 3^rd of November. The march is titled ‘Education not Emigration’, is to protest against the rising tide of emigration, budget cuts to third level and the raising of the registration fee. I would ask you to spend some time on your show the night before, (Tuesday 2^nd Nov) to debate some of the issues that are and will affect students.

Following next Decembers budget where state funding to third level institutions is expected to be cut by 3% they will face a significant battle to secure a college place. College administrators have had to cut costs by on average 6% over the past 2 years. But now to reduce costs further they will have no choice but to cap the number of places available on courses or even reduce the amount of places on offer.

If they do not do this the quality of Third Level education would decrease in this country, significantly damaging the accreditation of Irish Qualifications abroad. It is vital also that the standard of Third Level education here do not drop to ensure investment in our Universities like Limerick for research and to encourage foreign students to study here in Ireland. How can our government claim to be pursuing a ‘Smart Economy’ when they are squeezing the countries institutions to the breaking point? The standard even needs to be raised in some cases, as the fiasco where the Psychological Society of Ireland revoked accreditation from the American College Dublin, leaving most of the 62 students involved having to transfer to another Institution.

The current government is failing to direct investment into the country and thus isn’t incentivising companies to hire graduates. The draconian budget brought in at the time of the start of the recession severely limited growth in this country. Graduates in this University and others with honours degrees and masters are flocking abroad to Australia and Canada because of the lack of opportunities here. Even some who have been fortunate to be offered a job have turned it down in favour of heading on the plane abroad due to the reduced pay, long hours and poor benefits.

In my opinion it would be fitting to invite the President of the USI, the Minister for Education or Finance and the Education spokesperson from either Fine Gael or Labour. To add, even though my Students Union here in the University of Limerick does not affiliate itself with the USI they still will be supporting the march because of its objectives.