The Provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Thomas Mitchell, who is finishing his 10-year term shortly, has made a severe attack on Government decisions at third level over recent years.
Dr Mitchell said the decision to abolish third-level fees should be re-examined because it had benefited middle-class students but had damaged attempts to get poorer students into university.
"The benefits are very difficult to find in relation to that decision. I wish somebody would point them out to me," he said.
He said the cost of abolishing fees meant the Government was now less likely to provide money towards disadvantaged schemes at third level.
"It seems we are now saying because we've abolished fees we can't help poorer students. That's pathetic," he said.
He said the abolition introduced by the Fianna Fail/ Labour Government in 1994 was "regressive" and a "major mistake". Students from families headed by higher professionals were the ones to benefit the most, he said.
An election takes place next month to replace Dr Mitchell, with five candidates contesting the position. Dr Mitchell has been one of the most high-profile provosts of Trinity in recent years. Dr Mitchell said the Government's core grant to universities had also fallen dramatically in the last few years of his term. He said in 1980 it was 83 per cent of Trinity's overall budget, but last year it fell to 47 per cent.
"As I reflect on the last 10 years, this is not a good trend. It has got worse in the last five years. It is a hard policy to understand." He said the Government should be seeking to remedy the infrastructural problems currently affecting the universities.
The 1970s and 1980s had seen a large expansion in the numbers of students at university, from 17,000 in the late 1960s to 63,000 last year. He said university buildings had not been updated to cope with this.
Dr Mitchell was also scathing about the State's record on disadvantaged students. He said while universities could do more to change their admissions policy, there was little point when poorer students faced so many financial disadvantages.
"Maintenance grants must provide an incentive rather than a disincentive, and that will mean at least doubling existing levels," he said. At present grants were "pathetically low and totally inadequate." Dr Mitchell said that during his term great progress was made at Trinity and throughout the third-level sector, but the challenges ahead were daunting. "Ireland's overall workforce is seriously under-educated by the standards of developed countries," he said.
He said only 23 per cent of those between 25 and 64 have any form of third-level qualification.
"This means that our overall workforce is seriously undereducated by the standards of developed countries, an unacceptable situation for a country seeking to build a knowledge society," he added.