IT Tallaght reaching breaking point due to budget cuts
By Mary Dennehy
IT TALLAGHT’S budget was slashed by more than 40 per cent between 2008 and 2015, despite the local college experiencing a 50 per cent increase in student numbers over the same period.
On Wednesday, IT Tallaght lecturers staged a lunchtime protest outside the campus to highlight the chronic underfunding in their sector – which has left colleges like IT Tallaght at “breaking point”.
Organised by the Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI), which represents more than 4,000 lecturing and research staff in Institutes of Technology, similar protests were staged at all 14 Institutes of Technology nationwide - with demonstrations also held at Dail Eireann and the office of the Higher Education Authority.
In figures seen by The Echo, there was a 10 per cent reduction in staff numbers at IT Tallaght between 2008 and 2015, with the local college also hit with a 40 per cent budget cut, the second highest cut across all Institutes of Technology.
In the same seven year period as these cuts, IT Tallaght’s student numbers increased by 50.6 per cent - the second highest increase in student numbers across the country’s 14 Institutes.
Speaking with The Echo, Deirdre Kennedy, Branch chair of IT Tallaght TUI said that IT Tallaght has reached “breaking point” and that while the protest is calling for better funding nationwide, that lecturers are very anxious that proper funding be given to Tallaght in light of the region it caters to.
Nationally, according to TUI, the Institute of Technology sector has experienced a 35 per cent cut (€190m) between 2008 and 2015, with a 9.5 per cent decrease in full-time academic staff numbers at a time when student numbers increased by 32 per cent.
Martin Majoram, a mathematics lecturer in IT Tallaght and a member of TUI’s National Executive, said: “Every day, lecturers see the damage that an era of austerity cuts has wreaked on the education system and the quality of experience for students.
“While lecturers welcome the increase in third level participation, the complete failure to provide appropriate funding and to maintain appropriate staffing levels has had a grossly negative impact on the student experience of higher education.
“Students have suffered larger class sizes and significantly curtailed access to essential facilities such as libraries and laboratories.
“They have also endured sharp cuts to tutorial and student support provision.”
He added: “As a result of the fall in lecturer numbers and the steep rise in student numbers, lecturer workload has increased considerably.
“Findings of a survey carried out by TUI (April 2015) show that lecturers were experiencing high levels of work-related stress as a result of cutbacks and rationalisation of the sector, and we believe that the situation has worsened since then.
“Academic workload in the Institutes of Technology is disproportionate, unfair and unsustainable, and with lecturing delivery hours significantly above domestic and international norms, academic staff are severely restricted in terms of their engagement with research.
“In addition, many academic staff suffer income poverty as a result of low hours and insecure employment.
“We urge the Department of Education and Skills to make appropriate provision for the sector in next month’s budget and to engage with TUI on these matters as a matter of urgency.”
