UNIVERSITIES ARE closing libraries early, making cutbacks in student services and watching their buildings fall into disrepair because of a lack of funds, the Oireachtas education committee heard yesterday.
Heads of the seven universities said they expected to have a deficit next year, while three universities already had substantial overruns.
The committee heard that University College Dublin had a cumulative deficit of €15 million.
University College Cork had a cumulative deficit of about €13 million, while the University of Limerick was expecting a deficit of €1.8 million in the current academic year, with a cumulative deficit of about €6 million.
Dublin City University president Prof Ferdinand Von Prondzynski said he was very strict in ensuring that the college did not have a deficit, but it was going to be "very challenging" to adhere to this.
Keeping within the budget meant that water was leaking from the ceiling because money was being spent on more urgent issues, he said.
Students would experience these deficiencies "more and more", he said as cutbacks continued. "It would be nice to promise otherwise, but I can't," he added.
Similarly, Trinity College Dublin, NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway said they had kept within budget in the past year, but they all predicted deficits in the coming year.
NUI Galway president Prof Jim Browne said the university's engineering building was 200-years- old and it was very difficult to attract students to engineering in Galway when infrastructure was so poor.
UCD registrar Dr Philip Nolan said its library opening times had gone back to the opening times of 2003 in a bid to cut costs.
On the reintroduction of fees, Ned Costello, chief executive of the Irish Universities' Association, said universities believed that the fairest approach was to use a system of deferred loans as well as top-up fees.
The universities have already spoken out against a reintroduction of the fees and grants system which existed before 1996.
Mr Costello said the universities had made no request to increase student registration charges.
It was reported earlier this week that the Government had decided on a major increase in the student registration fee, but Mr Costello said any increase in this charge would have to be proposed by the universities.
They had received no suggestion from Government to seek this increase, he said.
Mr Costello said university funding could not be planned without a strategic investment plan, but there was no such plan.
He said the spend per student in third-level education was €10,000 in Ireland, compared with €14,000-€24,000 in the best performing countries.
He also pointed to a 17 per cent drop in core funding per student between 2001 and 2006.
However, this was questioned by Fine Gael's Brian Hayes who pointed to figures from the Department of Education suggesting an increase in core funding from €538 million to €753 million in the same period.
But the university heads stood by their calculations, saying the the drop in funding was a drop in real terms, when issues such as inflation and pay increases were taken into account.
Several university representatives said it was very difficult to recruit key staff because of pay restrictions introduced by the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector.
UCC president Prof Michael Murphy said the restrictions severely impeded the university in international competition for staff.
Prof Von Prondzynski said the pay limits made it very difficult to recruit people for key projects at DCU.
UCD was in discussions with the Higher Education Authority because of issues over contractual obligations already entered into, its registrar told Labour's Ruairí Quinn when asked if all universities were complying with the pay regulations.
