The National University of Ireland must make more effort to provide access to students from less privileged backgrounds, according to its newly-installed Chancellor, Dr Garret FitzGerald.
Speaking after his installation ceremony at the NUI headquarters in Merrion Square, Dublin, yesterday, he said that the NUI was unrivalled in its resources, geographical spread and the range of disciplines it offered.
It had a particular responsibility to pursue two key objectives, he said: to attract many of the ablest of our young people; and to take all possible steps to ensure access to higher education for many whose less privileged background had made it difficult for them to fulfil their natural potential.
"We have, I believe, been less successful in tackling the problem of assisting access to university education for those whose personal backgrounds may have been prevented them from developing their talents fully at school," he said.
The scale of the challenge faced by universities was not always appreciated, as four out of every five school-leavers had an aspiration for some kind of higher education, and the ratio of school-leavers to population was much higher than in the rest of Europe, he said.
The challenge was not just to meet the increasingly specialised skills needed for our changing society and dynamic economy, but also to meet intellectual, moral and spiritual needs, without which economic prosperity could undermine a society.
The installation was attended by the presidents of the four constituent colleges of the university, Dr Art Cosgrove of UCD, Dr Michael Mortell of UCC, Dr Patrick Fottrell of UCG and Dr William Smith, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, the Registrar of the NUI, Dr John Nolan, and other newly-elected members of the Senate.