Sir, - "State gives more to institutes than to universities," says the headline to an article by your Education Editor, Sean Flynn (The Irish Times, May 9th).
Nowhere in the text is it stated clearly that there are more institutes of technology (13) than universities (seven), or that the former have suffered from decades of under-funding. Secondly, capital investment figures for individual third-level institutions are compared in a table in the article, without listing the student populations of the colleges.
A comparison of capital expenditure per student across all third-level institutions yields a rather different result to that presented in the article.
Finally, it should be pointed out that simply listing capital investment figures does not present the full picture, as these do not include state-funded research programmes. It is worth noting that a recent survey by the Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology found that the institutes received only 11 per cent of third-level National Higher Education Research Funding in 1999-2002. Yours, etc.,
CORMAC RAFFERTY,
Ballymabin,
Dunmore East,
Co Waterford.