A total of €36.5 million will go to higher education in Budget 2017, ranging from money to attract disadvantaged students into higher education to support for the development of technological universities. This investment is the first substantial allocation to higher education in the past nine years.
“Research” areas will receive €3 million, with €1.5 million going to aiding the government’s new Frontiers Research programme and the rest to attracting world-class researchers who are leading figures in their fields. The government has emphasised that this aim is particularly important in light of Brexit, which will see Ireland left as the only English-speaking country in the EU.
While top talent is essential for Trinity’s continued international competitiveness, the focus shouldn’t lie solely with attracting world-leading researchers. Trinity’s research capacity is what allows it to shine against other major universities, as seen with its exciting entry into the League of European Research Universities (LERU), a standing that will afford Trinity both global prestige and lobbying potential. But efforts to attract international talent will be stymied if the focus is deployed solely to researchers. Instead, the government’s policy should be one of taking advantage of Brexit in a variety of contexts, including attracting students who may feel disenchanted with British universities that will soon exist in a post-EU world.
Prospective students of UK universities have been promised that fees for the 2017 cohort will remain the same, even if the UK leaves the EU during their four-year course. However, the same assurances cannot be made for future EU students considering a British education in the coming years. UK students, too, may no longer see such a bright future with their own education system and could be drawn to a neighbouring one that would not place the same constraints on their ability to work, study and travel abroad. For Irish higher education institutions, this represents an exciting possibility to fill that void. World-class researchers attracted to Ireland in light of Brexit would represent another means by which Ireland can market itself to top student cohorts across the EU.
Allocating funding to attracting world-class researchers will allow Ireland to continue nurturing its strong research tradition. Placing a similar emphasis on students will propel these promising efforts even further.
