The recent article by Lorna Finlayson for the New Left Review offers a stark and timely reflection on the challenges facing higher education in the United Kingdom. While focused on the British experience, many of the concerns raised will resonate with those working across the Irish higher education sector.
The piece highlights the consequences of a funding model that increasingly treats higher education as a product rather than as a public good. It describes a system under strain from financial instability, growing insecurity for staff, increasing managerial pressures, and an over-reliance on competition for students and external income. Whether one agrees with every aspect of the analysis or not, the article serves as an important warning of the risks that arise when public investment is withdrawn and universities are expected to operate according to market principles.
For IFUT, the lesson remains as clear as it has always been. We must continue to make the case for a properly funded, publicly accountable higher education system that recognises teaching, research, scholarship and academic freedom as essential public goods. Ireland has thus far avoided some of the more severe consequences seen across the UK, but the pressures of underfunding, growing workloads, precarious employment, and increasing managerialism are all too familiar and have recently, once again, been debated at an IFUT Annual Delegate Conference at which our mandate to address these matters was once again renewed.
At a time when universities face rising student numbers, growing expectations, and increasing demands to contribute to economic, social and cultural development, the answer cannot be to do more with less. Instead, we must redouble our efforts to convince policymakers, employers and the wider public that investment in higher education is an investment in society itself.
IFUT will continue to advocate for a sustainable model of higher education funding, meaningful sectoral engagement, secure employment, and a university system that serves the public interest rather than the demands of the market alone.