Future Funding of Higher Education Conference: Presentations Now Available

A conference on the Future Funding of Higher Education in Ireland was held in Maynooth University on Wednesday last. It was a very good day, with excellent speakers and great interaction between the audience and the speakers.

The presentations have now been posted online, and are available here.

5 replies on “Future Funding of Higher Education Conference: Presentations Now Available”

Apologies but the time for moderation is really killing this site as a place of discourse….the contributions have fallen off a cliff as a result. Is there any point continuing at this rate?

Nocense, I empathize. There is indeed some point in continuing to contribute comments – but its diminishing.

Most of these sort of sites have a limited life-cycle. This one seems to have entered a senescent phase. Though to be equitable – being a moderator is a pain in the butt.

I was impressed by the serious work on student finance in the UK, Australia and the USA by guest presenters. I was not so impressed by some of the domestic contributions, which to me were lacking in serious economic content.

We are drifting into an under-funded, low-quality, over-expanded mass higher education system, largely thanks to the disasterous “free” tuition policies of the late nineties. No-one in the political establishment has the courage to make any fundamental changes.

While I haven’t read through all the presentations, there doesn’t seem to be any focus on reducing the costs of higher education through technology.

No need for such expensive loans if the cost base is transformed.

I attended and was the discussant for Bruce Chapman’s first presentation. It was an excellent event: good academic inputs and real engagement with those from the policy side.
Of course, what policy changes occur, if any, will be a political decision. Any political appetite for courage has probably been tempered by the water charges fiasco.
On the effect of fee abolition in the 1990s, I suspect we would have drifted to much the same position as now anyway.

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