supply and demand

Ferdinand von Prondzynski of DCU has an article in today's Irish Times, making the point that attempts to 'rationalise' the university sector run the risk of creating a hierarchy of institutions, something that would be much more damaging in such a small country than any supposed 'over supply' of providers. Indeed, as mentioned before, despite the constant refrain from politicians and journalists, Ireland does not have an atypically large number of universities. If anything it is in the low-middle range of most small countries, with those often identified as particularly successful having more per head of population. The issue of the IoTs and other colleges, particularly those with low enrolment programmes is of course another issue as is the particular Irish trend of each institution copying the courses developed by others if they look remotely successful in attracting student numbers.