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  • Students in Ireland Struggling with Rising Rent and Limited Accommodation 

    Students in Ireland Struggling with Rising Rent and Limited Accommodation 

    By Jamie Ryan 

    Yugo Student Accommodation – Photo Credit: Jamie Ryan 

    The student accommodation crisis in Ireland has been an on-going issue for the past few years. 

    Every year, a new batch of students from across Ireland are accepted into universities, in which it is not an option for them to commute – along with returning students who are also actively seeking out accommodation for their upcoming academic year.  

    Kerry Ann-Darcy, 22, a recent graduate of Maynooth University, but originally from Dundalk in Louth, struggled each year during her time in university to seek accommodation.  

    “It’s not easy to find student accommodation in general, especially when there is a ‘first come, first serve’ general booking forum for on-campus accommodation,” Darcy explained.  

    “The university was not helpful and suggested that alternative accommodation could be found on a website called ‘Student Pad’ but that was it. But on Student Pad, the landlords are extremely picky with terms such as gender specific, academic year specific, course specific, degree specific and so on. 

    “Even once I did get accommodation, there were issues with it. My landlord had a table and chair for us in the dining room at the house viewing but had it removed for when I moved in and he told me that I ‘was imagining that there had been one there’. 

    Yugo Student Accommodation – Photo Credit: Jamie Ryan 

    “He complained and gave out to me because we had access to a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen – although that’s what I was paying him for but that’s the bare minimum. In third year, my landlady said that I had to be finished in the kitchen before 6pm but some of my classes only finished at that time,” Darcy added. 

    Back in 2022, the Minister for Further and Higher Education at the time, Simon Harris, made calls to homeowners living nearby to universities to rent out any spare rooms that they may have in their house to students – as a result of the severe lack of student accommodation to supply the high demands.  

    This alternative, however, does not necessarily end up costing students less as research carried out by the USI (Union of Students in Ireland) in February found that students are paying an average of €660 across the country to live in digs, with just 43% of those students given full access to the room, seven days per week. 

    This same study also found that of those surveyed, 59% said that they chose to live in digs as a result of being unable to find an alternative.  

    Antrim native Caitlin Procter, 19, was unable to attend university this year due to the lack of student accommodation available.  

    “After being accepted into multiple courses, I wasn’t even able to accept any of them because I couldn’t find anywhere to live,” she explained.  

    “I was really annoyed and frustrated about it so I sought elsewhere for digs but was still unsuccessful and unfortunately I can’t afford to commute two and a half or three hours per day to and from Belfast and Sligo,” she said.  

    This is a situation that unfortunately, too many students and university hopefuls find themselves in each year and it appears to be getting worse and worse.  

    Ardcairn House Student Accommodation – Photo Credit: Jamie Ryan 

    Dylan Downes, 22, a former student at the University of Limerick, originally from Wicklow, was living in digs for his first year in third level education as the commute between Wicklow and Limerick twice each week was unfeasible.  

    “I felt that living in digs was my only choice to be honest. I got an apartment with some of my friends for the following year, but I really felt that I probably lost out on the social aspect of college in first year,” Downes explained. 

    “My commute to and from college each day was around forty-five minutes, which is obviously better than three hours but even still, when you’re paying €700 per month for a room, it is disheartening, and I sometimes felt pretty isolated. 

    “Thankfully, my accommodation search in second year was far less stressful because one of my friends had already reserved an apartment for the following year and offered me the other room with him, in many cases looking for accommodation is more about who you know than anything else in my experience,” he said.  

    The student accommodation crisis is a direct result of the greater housing crisis that Ireland has been dealing with for the last decade. 

  • If you build it, they will come… Eventually

    If you build it, they will come… Eventually

    Lavanda (left) and V-Face (right) on Lower Grangegorman Road. Photo by Colm McGuirk

    “The fact that this unit was close to TU Dublin was a huge factor in the decision to go ahead with it.” Sarah Boland, owner of V-Face, is talking about her vegan fast-food restaurant’s proximity to the impressive new home of Technological University (TU) Dublin.

    The city campus of what used to be called DIT, built as the centrepiece of a major regeneration programme for Grangegorman in north Dublin city, is ready to welcome around 10,000 students plus staff – once Covid restrictions are no longer necessary. 

    Boland’s is among a number of independent businesses on the Lower Grangegorman Road that had factored those numbers into their plans. 

    “It’s going to be a huge campus, so obviously footfall will increase massively,” Boland says. 

    In the turbulent 10 months since it opened, V-Face has had to make some think-on-your-feet adjustments to compensate for lost bums on its 40 seats. Among them is the outdoor eating area installed on the opposite corner, in cooperation with Dublin City Council, and the window hatch through which Boland speaks to The City. 

    “Coffee and sandwiches were never in the business model,” Boland says, “but we said ‘let’s bring out a lunch offering.’ The burgers were doing really well, but were more for the evening offering. [The hatch and coffee counter] have been designed in a way that, once the pandemic is gone, you can also swing around and serve people that come in.”

    Dining tables installed by V-Face. Photo by Colm McGuirk

    While V-Face benefitted from a model partly geared towards takeaway from the off, former Mediterranean restaurant Lavanda on the opposite corner has had to reset completely in the last year. 

    “We tried to do takeaway Mediterranean food during the first wave,” says Croatian owner Robert Velic, “but it didn’t work very well.”

    Lavanda’s enforced rebirth was planned with the new TU Dublin campus in mind – it now sells toasties, slices of pizza and sweet treats.  

    “We’ll see when the students come back if we made the right choice”

    Robert Velic

    “The second wave came and then we completely changed. We were expecting those students. We adapted the prices to four or five euro,” Velic says.

    “When the lockdown ends,” he continues, “it’s going to be a proper takeaway and we can add a few more things to the menu when business picks up and the colleges are back. We’ll continue to target students and walk-ins. We’ll see when the students come back if we made the right choice.”

    A few doors up, Russia native Alexander Yegorov’s print and copy shop should be bustling. 

    His unit is next door to one of two new student apartment complexes on this stretch of road built in the controversial ‘co-living’ mould (and, in the ultimate symbol of the area’s gentrification, on the site of the former ‘Squat City’).

    “We opened our shop three months ago,” Yegorov tells us. “They move the lockdown every two months. I expected the students would be here from the new year. But now, it won’t be until summer time. 

    “But it’s OK,” Yegorov adds. “We can survive until summer.”

    “We knew it was a long game, but it’s been a lot longer than anticipated”

    Rebecca Feely

    On the next corner, Rebecca Feely of Kale+Coco tells The City that when she chose the location for her plant-based healthy food cafe in 2019, “it was under the assumption that there’d be lots of students.”

    “We knew it was a bit of a long game,” Feely says, “because they were moving students bit by bit. But it’s been a lot longer than anticipated.”

    While noting that her prices might be a little above the average student’s range, she tells us, “it’s always been in my head to focus more on marketing to students, but I haven’t had the chance yet because we haven’t had the students there yet.”

    Kale+Coco has leaned more towards retail of food products to help stay afloat in what has been a difficult year.

    Rebecca Feely in her cafe Kale+Coco. Photo by Colm McGuirk

    “We were never actually told to close, so you feel almost obligated to keep trading because you have bills to pay,” Feely says. 

    “You have rent due. If you’re not ordered by the government to close, you’re not covered by any insurance, your landlords aren’t going to give you a break,” she adds.

    While the eventual arrival of students should help jump-start these Lower Grangegorman businesses, it could well signal the end for Happy Days Coffee Van on the new campus a little further up the road. 

    The mobile cafe was set up by local resident Olivia O’Flanagan in response to the “inertia and isolation” her neighbours were faced with during the first lockdown last spring. 

    O’Flanagan, a former lecturer with no background in business, was given the green light to operate on TU Dublin’s campus for as long as its own catering services were closed. 

    “It’s a lockdown project to keep us all busy and connected and give some kind of focus for the local community,” she tells The City.

    Happy Days Coffee Van set up at the entrance of TU Dublin’s Grangegorman Campus. Photo by Colm McGuirk

    Hiring only locals helped her secure the temporary contract – staff can return to their own homes for the mandatory bathroom access.

    “For me, it’s not a business endeavour,” O’Flanagan says, “though it has made money and is paying eight people’s wages on 20 hours a week. They’re all delighted and their parents are saying they were all sitting in their bedrooms cracking up.”

  • ‘It is mentally and physically draining’ – The life of a student commuter

    ‘It is mentally and physically draining’ – The life of a student commuter

    By Megan Gorman

    The rising rents in Dublin are forcing students to endure long commutes in order to attend their desired university. Students are enduring daily round-trips to Dublin in particular. Although this lifestyle certainly has its benefits as it’s cheaper and less stressful than having to fend for yourself and you get to stay in the comforts of your home and enjoy your mum’s cooking.  

    However, the journey to and from university is definitely not easy as you don’t have the luxury of being able to wake up and make it to the lecture room 15 minutes later. Organisation skills are a must, as well as ensuring you have enough free food stuffed in your bag. By the time you get to college you have been awake for four hours and there’s nothing worse then when someone complains about waking up only an hour ago.

    5:00 It’s a Monday morning and the lecture isn’t until 9, yet still, you are getting up. Having to wake up four hours before the lecture isn’t ideal, and the weekly debate always starts: ‘Do I get up and go, or shall I sack it all off, stay in bed and forget about university all together…’

    6:15 Make my way to the bus station and wait for my 6:30am bus that will be packed with other unfortunate students. You are praying that it doesn’t arrive late and that traffic will be on your side, which it never is.

    8:00: Off the bus and make your way to college which involves a 20 minute walk or another bus.

    17:00: Back on the bus home, college friends will be home in 20 minutes and you will hopefully be home in 2 hours. It’s hard to do work on the bus but it has to be done as by the time you get home you just want to sleep.

    Sarah is a student in UCD. She commutes every day to college. She said: “It can be very frustrating as you know you have to leave college at a certain time to beat the heavy traffic and its so depressing when you just miss a bus so you have to wait around for an hour for another one.”

    Commuting means students miss out on opportunities. While their on-campus friends enjoy a ready-made friendship network in student accommodation from freshers’ week, commuters do not benefit from this privilage and they often have to make more of an effort to forge friendships.

    “The day is super long and it makes it hard to concentrate on assignments as all you want to do is rest. People don’t realise that travelling can be mentaly draining. And the worst part is that sometimes you only have one class and you have to travel for two hours for it,” Sarah added.

    “If you think getting up early in the morning is the worst thing about commuting then you are wrong. Commuting to college makes life hard and you miss out on so many things. Students who commute feel left out and alone. Your social life is close to non existence as you always have to catch a bus home and you aren’t near college on the weekends so you miss out on the social gatherings.

    “Missing out on drinks and the fun stuff that college is all about is hard and it makes is harder to have friendships with the people in the class.”

    “Between waking up early, missing out on the fun and then the dreaded workload, it makes the commute ten times worse for students. It is mentally and physically draining.”

  • Student anxiety levels at all-time high

    Student anxiety levels at all-time high

    By Andrea Byrne and Paula Bowden

    The number of students suffering from anxiety has doubled since 2012, according to a National Study of Youth Mental Health in Ireland. The findings show that in comparison to the previous study conducted in 2012, the amount of teenagers aged 12 to 19 suffering from severe anxiety has doubled from 11% to 22%. Levels of severe anxiety in young adults aged 18 to 25 have also seen an increase from 15% in 2012, to 26% in this year’s survey.

    The report also showed that females in particular have declining levels of self-esteem compared to males of the same age. There is also an increased level of depression among young people.

    The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) launched their national report on student mental health at the beginning of this academic year. Taking into account the experiences of over 3,300 students in Ireland, the report shined a light on the varying mental health attitudes of students and their experiences in accessing help and treatment. 

    “32% of students have been formally diagnosed as having a mental health difficulty”

    Among the findings in the report were that 38% of students said they experienced “extremely severe” levels of anxiety; 30% of students said they experienced severe levels of depression, and 17% felt severe levels of stress at some point.

    32% of students have been formally diagnosed as having a mental health difficulty, while one fifth of students said they did not have someone to talk to about their personal and emotional difficulties.

    “Third Level education is a key life transition and can be an extremely stressful time for students. We already know that levels of mental illness, mental distress and low wellbeing among students in higher education is increasing” according to a statement from the USI.

    Commenting on the results of the report, the USI said: “Students in third level education are exposed to many stresses, which trigger or exacerbate mental health difficulties.

    “These include living away from family and friends for the first time, coming directly from a structures learning setting, as well as many students taking on additional work commitments to support themselves financially.”

    “In terms of of waiting periods, many students agreed that waiting periods were too long”

    “Over half of respondents strongly agreed that a free face-to-face service is important on campus. Students were least likely to attend group therapy if offered by the outselling services.

    “Many students said they would attend counselling, but students also said that they did not think their problems were enough to warrant counselling. In terms of of waiting periods, many students agreed that waiting periods were too long.”

    Under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI), TheCity.ie has obtained figures relating to the number of counsellors employed, and the finances allocated to counselling services in the following Irish universities: Trinity College Dublin, Technological University of Dublin, Maynooth University, University College Dublin and Dublin City University.

    According to www.tcd.ie, there are 17,000 students currently studying in Trinity College Dublin (TCD).

    Academic Year Expenditure on Trinity College Dublin counselling services Number of counsellors allocated to the counselling services
    2017/2018 €1,517,050 10 (Full Time Employee 6.59)
    2018/2019 €1,674,858 10 (Full Time Employee 9.20)
    2019/2020 (to date) n/a n/a

    According to www.dit.ie, there are 20,000 students currently studying in TU Dublin (TUD). 

    Academic Year Expenditure on Technological University Dublin counselling services Number of counsellors allocated to the counselling services
    2017/2018 €466, 676 (2017) 5
    2018/2019 €480, 475 (2018) 7
    2019/2020 €389, 673 (2019 to date) 7

    According to www.maynoothuniversity.ie, there are 14,000 students currently studying at Maynooth University (MU).

    Academic Year  Expenditure on Maynooth University counselling services  Number of counsellors allocated to the counselling services 
    2017/2018 €300,000 (Full Time Employee 2.6)
    2018/2019 n/a n/a
    2019/2020 n/a n/a

    An FOI request was submitted to University College Dublin and Dublin City University in relation to expenditure on their counselling services, and the number of counsellors allocated, but have not responded for time of publication.

    TheCity.ie spoke to Patricia Murphy, a counsellor at Trinity College Dublin, who said: “I think that universities and third level colleges are all really trying to meet the needs of a specific age group in the population of 18-24. All of them are trying to provide the services of the mental health banner to students.

    “They’re providing one-to-one student counselling, groups and workshops on psycho-education which deal with issues such as anxiety and depression. They’re trying to do lots of outreach through various social media groups, they do a lot at orientation to really try and get people in earlier so that they do not crash and burn.”

    She said that TCD uses a ‘student-to-student service’ where student volunteers, who are well trained, can support other students in the university.

    Credit: pxphere.com

     “All universities and third level colleges around the world are experiencing huge rise in demand for services. It seems to me that the mental health of that age group, well maybe all age groups are needing more services,” she continued.

    The current Minister for Education has seen that two million euro is being given to counselling services, so there is acknowledgement that there needs to be more, which is great, but of course we need more resources in order to meet the growing demand. It’s very difficult, because colleges are hard pressed for money to devote more to this.”

    Patricia said that often people assume that students use counselling services to deal with stress, but that isn’t true: “People come with a variety of issues and some tend to be quite serious in nature. Depression and anxiety are the highest issues in the population anyways, there is a rising level of anxiety in our society that’s being mirrored. Other issues are to do with relationships, bereavement, or loss.”

  • HPAT hinders diversity in medicine

    HPAT hinders diversity in medicine

    By: Aoife Kearns and Robert Geoghegan

    Students from the most well-off parts of Dublin are 14 times more likely to progress to university, compared with students from some schools in the city’s more disadvantaged areas.

    A report released this year by the Higher Education Authority found only 10% of the student population were from a disadvantaged background, while 19%, almost double that of the disadvantaged student population, were from an affluent background. UCC, UCD, and the Royal College of Surgeons all have the lowest proportion of students, 5%, coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.

    In medicine, the percentage of students from affluent backgrounds is higher again, at 36%. Although there might not be one definitive answer as to why there is such a high percentage in this particular course, President of the Union of Students Ireland (USI), Lorna Fitzpatrick said: “Ireland currently has the second-highest fees in the EU at €3,000 with many students facing additional costs on top of that due to specific course requirements.

    “We also recognise that many students wishing to study medicine or in specialised fields such as economics and LIS as outlined in the report may have to move to an area where the course is available to them which can lead to a significant additional cost for accommodation.”

    Fitzpatrick highlights how the Health Professions Admission Test (HPAT), could be an additional financial barrier for students.

    “USI is acutely aware of the soaring costs of rent and the impact it is having on students’ daily lives. The requirement of the HPAT for those wishing to study specific courses brings with it another additional cost for students and their families which many just cannot afford or struggle to pay.”

    Dr. Maitiú Ó Tuathail a General Practitioner, head of the National Association of General Practioners (NAGP) and former Health Service Executive (HSE) Lead Non-consultant hospital doctor (NCHD) said: “The reality is that most medical students come from middle or upper middle class backgrounds and did so before there ever was the HPAT.

    “And the reason is similar to that for the HPAT; the majority of these come from private schools or institutes. This means that they get the highest available points in the Leaving Certificate, ensuring them a place in medical school.”

    Within the medical profession, there are complex social issues for those graduating into the medical field. Ireland has never trained more GPs than we do now, and the rates of pay have never been higher. However, there are a few of those graduating who are willing to work in this country, particularly outside Dublin. With the introduction of the HPAT, this seems to have exacerbated this problem.

    The HPAT explained

    In 2009, the HPAT was introduced to assist Irish students with high empathy levels into the medical profession, due to concerns that the old entry system was favouring students with top academic results.

    It was introduced to move away from the points race where previous students required an almost perfect Leaving Certificate to gain entry to medical school.

    Dr. Ó Tuathail said: “The goal of the HPAT was to make sure those that got into medicine were more balanced and not just academically strong, as was the case traditionally.”

    The HPAT exam is now generally sat by students the same year as their Leaving Certificate. Under a revised system the minimum CAO points requirement for medicine have been adjusted and are now counted alongside a student’s HPAT results.

    Cost as a barrier for prospective students

    Issues surrounding the cost of the exam for students and their families have previously been raised in the Dáil, although there has been no serious attempt to change the current system.

    In 2013, Fine Gael TD Mary Mitchell O’Connor released a statement in relation to the fairness of HPAT test for aspiring medical students:

    “The HPAT exam was supposed to open up access to medical courses, but I am concerned it is having the opposite effect. Recent reports suggest more than 50% of HPAT candidates take coaching courses, putting them in a superior position to those who cannot afford it.

    “As a result, the HPAT exam means the playing field for getting into medicine is more unequal than ever. I think it is time we reviewed the system, and consider who it is really benefiting.”

    To put this into perspective TheCity.ie has investigated the hidden cost of sitting the exam when these extra courses are considered.

    What do student doctors think?

    Ciara Dolan is a second-year medical student who sat the HPAT exam in 2018. She told TheCity.ie that students who can avail of books and extra courses have an advantage: “I think the HPAT is designed to suit a select few people who can score well without the books and courses.

    “It is possible to do well without these aids. It just means you’re giving yourself a disadvantage from the get-go.

    “One of my friends couldn’t afford to do any of the courses, at grind schools, or buy the books. None of his school would share their notes with him, even though his good friends had bought them, it gets competitive, but fortunately he still managed to get 97th percentile.”

    Ciara said the financial burden just adds to the pressure students already face if they sit the HPAT in conjunction with the Leaving Cert:

    “If you take the course and use the book, it becomes a new subject for you in the sixth year. I think someone told me at one stage that one HPAT question is worth roughly the same points as all of the Shakespeare section [in English].

    “One person I was in school with had a private tutor through MedEntry for two years that I think cost over a grand. He wasn’t naturally good at HPAT-style thinking but ended up getting a score in the high 90s.

    “I retook the HPAT after two years of Biomedical, Health and Life Sciences (BHLS) in UCD. I didn’t do a course the second time and got the same score as the first time. The fact that so many people re-sit the exam also skews the results hugely. I have friends who sat it four times.”

    What are the alternatives?

    Lorna Fitzpatrick said that the cost of further education in this country is the underlying problem: “Union of Students (USI) believes that attending third-level education should be available to all and people should be able to study in whichever field they wish without having to worry about the financial burden they are placing on themselves or their families.

    “Education is a public and social good and should be treated as such. Dr. Ó Tuathail said that a system similar to the US model, where a student must do an undergraduate course prior to studying medicine, would be much more appropriate in determining suitable candidates for medicine.

    “The US model definitely balances out the playing field, as it means entry is based on an interview, and your undergraduate academic success. That is if you exclude the astronomical cost for attending college there,” said Dr. Ó Tuathail.

    “The reality is, whether you choose law, architecture, veterinary medicine or actuarial studies, the findings are all the same. They all come from middle, or upper middle class backgrounds. The problem lies in the fact that those who have the means to pay for education do better than those that do not. That is a more complex problem to address.”

  • No need for €1,000 student fee increase

    No need for €1,000 student fee increase

    Calls from the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform (PER) to increase third level fees by at least €1,000 appear unjustified when recent university figures are taken into account.

    University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland’s largest university, reported a surplus of over €20 million for the year ending September 2016, an increase of €2.3 million from 2015.

    Furthermore, UCD experienced a €13 million rise in academic fees paid over the course of the year, with the figure rising to €211 million, an increase of 6.5 percent.

    ucd

    What is telling, however, is the figure for state grants and funding. In 2006, that figure stood at over €120 million and was the college’s main source of income, eclipsing academic fees by some €15 million. Ten years on, however, that figure had dwindled to €60 million, less than half of what it was a decade ago.

    It is much the same story for DIT and DCU, two of Dublin’s largest colleges. Trinity college, on the other hand, has experienced budget deficits since the economic crash of 2008, but its finances have vastly improved over the past years.

    A deficit that stood at €22.5 million in 2013, now stands at €9.4 million. Trinity, like UCD, has experienced drastic cuts to state funding and has seen a 25 percent decrease since 2012 (€58 million to €44 million).

    Like UCD, Trinity College has also experienced a huge increase in academic fees, overseeing a 17.5 percent rise since 2012 (€113 million to €133 million).
    Both of the above changes are a direct result of the economic downturn; funding for universities was cut annually during the recession, while academic fees were controversially imposed across the board at €3,000.

    The Department of Public Expenditure’s newest proposals have been met with widespread resistance from the student body, with protests and demonstrations taking place at the beginning of this academic year and it is easy to see why.

    The department argues that there is a funding shortfall for third level education in Ireland, but there only is a shortfall in funding because of cuts implemented by various governments since the recession.

    Academic fees are not the issue. According to the Central Statistics Office (CSO), there are now 180,000 full time third level students in the country along with 39,000 part-time students, more than there ever has been. Colleges, therefore, have never taken in more money from academic fees than they do at present.

    The department estimates that 50 percent of students are either totally or somewhat exempt from paying college fees owing to family income levels. Even so, a €1,000 increase to academic fees would roughly yield an additional €110 million annually for Irish colleges.

    Government funding is badly needed, rather than an increase in student fees, and Budget 2018 saw the department pledge an extra €47.5 million to third level funding. An awful lot more is needed, UCD’s funding alone has been cut by more than that in the past decade, but it is a start at the very least.

    The Budget also pledged to increase funding by €310 million by 2021, but the government were criticised for an “absence of any specific direct funding to support third level education” by the Irish Federation of University Teachers.

    Members of the opposition, including Labour’s Aodhán O Ríordáin, have criticised the “precious little efforts” made by the government to address the funding problem in third level education.

    Fine Gael gleefully pointed out during the Rugby World Cup in 2015 that Ireland had the fastest growing economy of any of the nations competing in the tournament. Perhaps it is time they start acting like that is the case and giving back to the Irish taxpayer.

    By Shane O’Brien

     

  • University Costs in Ireland

    University Costs in Ireland

  • Is a university degree worth more than an IT degree?

    Is a university degree worth more than an IT degree?

    The campus at UCD.
    The newly opened €175 million O’Brien Centre for Science in UCD.
    The Campanile sits at the heart of the Trinity College campus.
    DIT’s building on Aungier Street in Dublin’s city centre is home to the institute’s school’s of Business and Arts and Tourism.

     

    At the recent Global Irish Economic Forum, Glen Dimplex CEO Sean O’Driscoll stated that Ireland has “too many universities”.

    The University College Cork graduate believes that “We need to redefine the role of ITs. They should not be quasi-universities. ITs should be about apprenticeships and internships.”

    With the impending amalgamation of Dublin Institute of Technology, IT Blanchardstown and IT Tallaght to form Dublin Technological University on the city’s northside, the question arises; “Are degrees from universities more valuable than those earned through an institute of technology?”

    “In practical application, no, I don’t think there is a difference in the value of a degree, but in terms of actually getting a job, maybe.  Maybe nowadays employers look more positively on names such as Trinity and UCD than those ending with IT”- Philip Greene, Economics and Politics, Trinity College.

    “I’m sure law courses in other schools cover the same ground as we do, but I do think firms look for students from the likes of Trinity, mainly because they more than likely achieved better academically to get into their respective colleges.  As well as that, there is a lot to be said for the esteem in which employers hold colleges and universities such as Trinity and UCD.”- Ellen Gaffney, Law, Trinity College.

    Dr. Paul Horan, the head of Campus Planning at Dublin Institute of Technology believes the move to Grangegorman will be a massive benefit to the college. “For DIT the project delivers a range of wins; improved facilities, potential to respond to changing pedagogy, potential to deliver facilities we currently don’t have e.g. student accommodation, synergies and savings in more efficient operation, and a strengthened sense of identity.”

    “I’d have the same skill set as a graduate from a similar degree in UCD or Trinity i.e I don’t think there would be much difference in the content.  I’m not sure though about getting a job.  I’d imagine employers would have a preference for universities.” Daniel Condon, Economics and Finance, D.I.T.

    “I think in practice, A degree from an I.T is every bit as valuable and useful as one from a university but in reality, a university degree would give an individual more opportunities as far as employment is concerned.” Daniel Murphy, Media, BCFE.

    “I think degrees from an IT carry the exact same value as ones from a university.  My course is a four year degree course; just because it’s in an IT and not a university does that make it less of a degree? ITs are improving year on year and are quickly catching up to the level of universities.” Neal Harrison, Exercise and Health Studies, W.I.T.

    From talking to these students, it is clear that the general consensus is that a University degree carries with it a higher value to employers, but those who do IT degrees feel they are catching up.