Sir, – Another year, another fall in the rankings for our universities ("Irish universities continue to fall in global rankings", September 6th).
For those of us who have for years been warning about the long-term damage to higher education caused by the policies of successive governments, the latest QS rankings come as no surprise.
By next year, Ireland may well have no universities in the top 100. What message will this send to potential investors in our country? What will it say about our priorities as a nation?
This slide is a direct and inevitable consequence of two decades of government policy and of the inadequacy of successive ministers of education and science, from some of whom, including the incumbent, one might have expected better.
The Cassells report was itself an exercise in kicking the can down the road. Its conclusions were ineluctable.
Now, rather than considering the options and making a decision, the Government has elected to give the can another kick.
Just how bad do things have to get before the Government decides to act? – Yours, etc,
FRANK E BANNISTER,
Dublin 4.