W2E-001 Ulster editorials 1-5.txt
EDITORIAL

Congratulations on your entry to Queen's you belong to the few of us lucky enough to gain a place at university. I doubt if it was easy, though. When the A-level grades were released, school leavers throughout the country were thrust into the dog eat dog world of confusion and uncertainty as the struggle began - often in vain - to ensure positions in tertiary level education, especially in universities across the water.

Except for school leavers who met the required grades, telephone lines were humming under the insistent pressure of concerned prospective students contacting the various academic institutions and organisations to have strangers informing them of their future.

The signs of the big squeeze on university places - so apparent this year - have been on the increase over the last few years, rising from 15% in 1987 to 28% in 1992. Obviously the government's target figure of 33% by the year 2000 is well on course, but are the universities'facilities in line with government projections? Furthermore, is the government well prepared to finance the demands they have issued for third level education?

University resources - whether they are based on library facilities, tutorial sizes or adequate accommodation have been increasingly strained over the past five years. Limitations have been swept aside as the push for more undergraduate places has not been countered with an increase in the government's spending for education. In fact, John Patten, Minister for Education, has had the gall to reduce by 33% the fees for arts and social science courses. Regardless of the fact that these faculties have the greatest percentage of undergraduates, the fees set by the government have been drastically cut.

The fee per student originally stood at £ 1,850.00 - it is now £ 1,300. To rub salt into the wounds of each university - and subsequently each prospective undergraduate - John Patten announced his plan AFTER many universities had begun offering course places on the presumption that undergraduate numbers would rise as in previous years.

Universities, as a result, have been forced to freeze arts course levels to remain in line with last year's figures whilst attempting to attract students to degrees where fees haven't been slashed. It doesn't help matters much when the government claims that their objective is to attract more students to science and technology courses, away from "less useful" arts and social sciences courses.

The consequences so far? A lot of students with arts-orientated A-levels who have missed the requirements by a point or two, discovered with dismay that they have to reapply next year - when the competition will be even greater.

Mr Patten assures us that expansion should be possible again, but not until 1996 - hardly comforting for this year's unsuccessful school leavers as they watch those lucky enough to gain places pass by, gown-clad with degrees in tow.
