Just when you think that Stormont cannot get any more ridiculous, it generally does.
The latest example is the suggestion from the Department for the Economy that, to save money, it could cut the number of university places and increase tuition fees.
While it may just be a departmental ploy to gain more funding, this idea would effectively tilt university education back towards being the preserve of the privileged.
Describing it as lunacy, madness, stupidity, idiocy or just plain silliness does not quite convey its sheer folly. (In the future, the collective noun for a group of daft ideas might well be a Stormont of stupidities.)
Let me explain.
The 26 Counties has nine universities. We have two. They have nine institutes of technology (delivering degrees for business and industry). We have none. So we are trailing by a score of 18 to 2. Eleven other institutions in the south receive public funding, including prestigious bodies such as the Royal College of Surgeons and the Royal Irish Academy. On that basis we are behind by 29 to 2.
In those circumstances, Stormont might reasonably be expected to develop our higher education provision to proportionately match the south’s. But in what MLAs call “debates”, universities are just another excuse for sectarian point-scoring.
Following this latest proposal, for example, the SDLP and Alliance blamed Brexit. Sinn Féin blamed the “Tory/DUP Brexit” (presumably to distinguish it from all other Brexits) and Jim Allister blamed Conor Murphy. Nothing new there then.
The Good Friday Agreement might have been expected to include a commitment to social and economic development. This would have included funding the expansion of university provision, to lay the foundation for a more educated and enlightened, society. Instead, 25 years later Stormont is considering scaling down our universities.
Things could have been so much different.
Thirty years ago I could see a clear link between southern economic growth and its higher education structure. I began lobbying for a similar system for the north. Retired taoiseach, Garret FitzGerald, confirmed for me over lunch that the Celtic Tiger was largely built on graduates from the regional colleges. With his support, I continued lobbying northern politicians and senior civil servants in the run up to the Good Friday Agreement.
The politicians played dumb (their only fluency was in flags) and civil servants laughed at the idea. (The word “civil service” and “vision” rarely sit easily together.)
In October, the regional college in Athlone (population the same as Antrim) became the Technological University of the Shannon, Midlands and Midwest. It offers courses up to doctoral level, including computing, building, social care, health science, nursing and sport science. It has campuses in Limerick city (same size as Bangor), Clonmel (Banbridge) Ennis (Antrim) and Thurles (Newcastle).
Letterkenny has a smaller population than Derry, Lisburn, Ballymena, Newtownards, Carrickfergus or Newry. Its regional college offers over 50 undergraduate courses and 26 Masters degrees ranging from cybersecurity and artificial intelligence research, to leadership and public sector innovation. (MLAs could benefit from that one.)
A united Ireland? We are not even on the same planet as the south in terms of higher education.
Queen’s University, for example, made £50 million in income from 3,500 foreign students last year (about £14,000 each in fees). Local students pay £4,630, meaning that one foreign student is worth three locals. So we export many of our young people to English universities, leaving only the wealthiest and those from overseas to access higher learning here. Is that what Queen’s is for?
In the south and in Scotland, university education is free. Stormont’s latest idea would raise fees here to £7,200, while cutting the number of students.
The main parties at Stormont should be embarrassed for failing our young people. Apart from its role in underpinning economic and social development, education is the only way out of the sectarian maze in which Stormont thrives. Sadly, our main political parties appear intent on enshrining that maze of ignorance. Shame on the lot of them.
