Contradiction between public policy and persistent underfunding laid bare [IrishTimes]
- Published: 06 January 2011
BACKGROUND: The Hunt report says education is the key to our future. But it raises serious questions about the sustainability of current funding arrangements
THE LONG-AWAITED Hunt report will finally be published next Tuesday. The report has had a painful birth. There have been reports of serious division among members of the group. At one stage last summer the entire draft report was extensively rewritten amid complaints from some that it was not up to scratch.
The final report presented to Cabinet recently is certainly sharper and more focused. But there is no arresting new Big Idea – and little that will surprise.
Many of its key recommendations – including the demand for a quantum leap in funding – echo the 2004 OECD report on higher education. That report has been drawing dust on the shelf since its publication. Will the Hunt report suffer a similar fate?
That said, the report is strong in highlighting the essential contradiction in public policy towards the higher education sector. The sector may be recognised by government as key to all our futures but it remains persistently underfunded – and it fails to get the kind of political attention it merits.
That is why Hunt would like to see the Minister for Education chairing a Cabinet committee on the sector and a beefed up role for the Higher Education Authority.
On funding, the report says we cannot expect the State alone to pick up the tab for future growth in the sector given “current budgetary constraints”.
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
