The Letterkenny Institute of Technology is facing urgent financial issues – with a €1million deficit revealed in this year’s budget.
The Higher Education Authority today published a financial review of the Institutes of Technology sector, which shows a stark change in financial performance in recent years.
LYIT is one of six of the institutes facing immediate sustainability challenges. Budget figures from 2015 showed that the college faced a deficit of -€1,345,000.
The LYIT, along with all Institutes of Technology, has had a reduction of state funding by 34% over the last decade. In the same period, the student population has increased by 24%.
A priority for the college is the campus extension and improvement of facilities at the School of Tourism in Killybegs, which has an estimated cost of €25m.
The rise in student numbers at all national Institutes of Technology is expected to go up by 12% by 2020, the report stated.
The report also found a need for increased funding in the STEM areas – which is another challenge to be considered in a formal HEA review later this year.
Pay inflexibility and staffing is putting a major constraint on the Institutes’ efforts to reduce expenditure, the report said. This is despite a reduction in core staff levels already. The report suggested the consideration of a national redundancy programme to address the pay inflexibility.
President of Athlone Institute of Technology Professor Ciaran O’Cathain stated that “it is clear from this report that the Institutes of Technology have risen to the challenge over the last decade of managing a reduction in state funding of 34%, as a result of the crisis in the state’s finances, while simultaneously increasing student numbers by 24%.”
“Notwithstanding this effort, and the ingenuity and commitment of management and staff in the sector in addressing the unprecedented collapse in state funding, that the sector has been aware for some time of the precariousness of its financial position and warns that the main finding of the report that this approach has run out of road”.
The THEA representative body for LYIT has called on the Government to establish a Stability Fund of €130m to ensure that the Institutes of Technology remain solvent in the short term, and have the necessary financial base to meet the challenges in the coming years.
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