The economic boom is making it harder for University College Dublin to persuade graduates to stay on and do a Masters or Ph.D. degree, according to its president, Dr Art Cosgrove.
Because good students and graduates can easily get a job at a high salary, they are more tempted to leave - but a shortage of postgraduate students could create problems for the university's research programmes which rely heavily on them.
"We're now facing the situation that we might have to raise financial incentives for postgraduates," Dr Cosgrove said in an interview with UCD News.
This may have to be done in partnership with industry, he said. "I think there is a growing realisation that the strength of the economy depends on co-operation between industry and education," he said. "In the past the two tended to be different entities, but I think that's breaking down . . . I would see the future as involving much greater interaction between the two, without any compromises on either side."
Research has been given an increasingly high priority in UCD in recent years. For instance, every academic on the staff is expected to engage in research.
Dr Cosgrove said the "mix" of students in UCD had not changed significantly following the introduction of "free" third-level education by the last government. He said raising the maintenance grant for those less able to afford a university education might have been a better use of public money.
Dr Cosgrove also questioned why mature students doing the modular arts degree were forced to pay fees. "They do much the same courses as those who study during the day, and that they have to pay fees when day students do not runs contrary to expressed Government policy of trying to encourage a return to learning among mature students," he said.
If measures were introduced to improve the socio-economic mix of students, the numbers going to university could increase, he argued. And the reintroduction of fees in the UK would mean more Irish students going to university in the Republic.
pomorain@irish-times.ie
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