USI and IFUT Condemn Government’s Third-Level Recruitment Embargo
The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) and the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) have condemned the Government’s recruitment embargo in third-level institutes.
The Higher Education Authority (HEA) demanded that, this year, all Higher Education institutes cut employment to 3 per cent below 2008 levels. The ban has affected the academic quality, as well as administrative efficiency, of colleges throughout the country.
USI President, Peter Mannion, said:
“These cuts are devastating students’ experiences at college. Given the fact that some of these staffing cutbacks are in the student services sector, our members feel the affects acutely.”
Mike Jennings, IFUT’s General Secretary, said:
“The Irish Federation of University Teachers shares completely the frustration expressed by USI: in colleges up and down the country IFUT members can see all too plainly the damage that is already being done to the very fabric of our Higher Education system. The Minister for Education, I am sad to say, does not even know the damage he is doing.
“My members are finding it doubly hard to cope. Not only are they vilified daily in the media as overpaid public servants while struggling to provide an education to students with vastly limited resources, but, to add insult to injury, the man who is supposed to be their political champion demonstrates almost daily his cluelessness of what is happening in his name on the ground.”
The Press Release issued jointly by IFUT and USI is available in full here.