Trinity is exploring alternative options to fund its student services, The University Times has learned. The services are becoming increasingly difficult to finance as university funding remains precarious and College continues to run on a budget deficit.
Student services encompass facilities such as the Student Counselling Service and the Careers Advisory Service, as well as Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union (TCDSU), the Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) and even the library.
Against the background of a higher education funding crisis, the College budget for student services has become increasingly strained. In 2014, Student Counselling Service’s annual report stated that “unprecedented funding cuts and steady referral increases pose a significant, on-going risk” to the service. Meanwhile, students are increasingly relying on these services. Student Counselling saw a 150 per cent increase in bookings for emergency appointments in the last year alone.
The challenge facing the services was raised at a meeting of the College Board in September within the context of a general discussion on philanthropy.
Student services are currently not one of the funding priorities supported by the Trinity Fundraising Campaign, which is seeking to raise philanthropic funding for College. The discussion at Board, however, did note that more projects could be added to the campaign.
The issue was raised at a meeting of the College Board in September, within the context of a general discussion on philanthropy.
Commenting on the difficulty in an email to The University Times, Trinity’s Chief Operating Officer, Geraldine Ruane, said: “The key objective is to ensure that the Corporate Services Division give an excellent service to all our students. In light of the college’s financial deficit this is a challenge for all of us”.
The Corporate Services Division, overseen by Ruane, is responsible for overseeing the search for new funding sources. The office will work alongside Dr Alison Oldam, the Director of Student Services, to review “various ways of funding Student Services”, according to Ruane.
Ruane said that her division was working with the Development and Alumni Office to attract donations and philanthropic funding. This model, she noted, had worked in the past. She noted that it had a “positive history”, pointing to a previously successful collaboration between Trinity Sport and the Development and Alumni Office.
In a speech to staff and students in October, marking the halfway point of his tenure, Provost Patrick Prendergast, indicated that philanthropy and commercial activities would be central to the future of College funding in the future.
In 2014/15, Trinity raised €53.3 million through philanthropic pledges to the university, with €800,000 spent on “student experience and outreach”. Over 50 per cent of Trinity’s funding is drawn from non-exchequer sources, and the university has sought in recent years to raise funding in a variety of new ways. This has included an increasing emphasis on commercialisation and on promoting Trinity as a tourist and visitor attraction, while also increasing the number of international students in the university. In January, Trinity launched its targeted fundraising campaign, aimed at increasing philanthropic donations to the College as well as building support for Trinity from the government, its agencies and industry partners.
Speaking to The University Times, the Dean of Development, Gerard McHugh, who is partly responsible for attracting philanthropic funding for Trinity, said that the campaign meant creating a “systematic, fundraising initiative to bring the college together around a whole set of priorities”.
Trinity has been relatively successful in attracting funding. In November of 2015, Chuck Feeney’s Atlantic Philanthropies donated €138 million jointly to Trinity and University of California, which remains the largest donation of its kind in the history of the state.
Philanthropy alone will not be sufficient to fund the sector’s needs, according to government research. The National Strategy for Higher Education, known as the Hunt Report, notes that, in Ireland, “any credible effort to expand the role of philanthropic funding is critically dependent on the continuation of sustained public investment” given the current funding problem in the sector.
