Latest news with #higherEducation
Irish Times
21 hours ago
- Business
- Irish Times
UCD earned €42.8m from on-campus student accommodation last year
UCD netted €42.83 million from its on-campus student accommodation blocks, the largest such income across higher education institutions in the country. While down slightly from the €43.98 million revenue the university made in 2023, the accommodation income helped the university record a €34.5 million surplus for the year ending September 30th, 2024. The university's total revenue reached €848.4 million in 2024, a 12 per cent increase on the previous year. The institution credited the growth to increased research income which grew €16.1 million to €130.3 million and 'a very welcome increase' in government support under the Funding the Future scheme of €21.2 million to €124.7 million. A rise in student numbers led to student fee income rising by €9.8 million, to €301.4 million, a continuation of the trend which has seen student numbers increase by 30 per cent over the past 12 years. READ MORE [ Trinity College records €50.2m surplus as investment re-evaluation boosts bottom line Opens in new window ] Increasing 12.6 per cent, UCD's total expenditure hit €813.8 million, driven by a €45.1 million rise in staff costs due to a recruitment drive. Increased operating costs, which 'reflects an increase in costs associated with digital transformation, research expenditure and training and development' also drove the increase. UCD's borrowings increased to €454.6 million, as a result of drawing down on a €350 million term loan facility from the European Investment Bank to support the development of capital projects such as the construction of its new Centre for Future Learning and a more than €87 million development of its sports facilities . Consequently, its bank and cash balances reached nearly half a billion, €481.9 million. Following an assessment, UCD found that €1.46 million in expenditure was not compliant with public-sector procurement regulations during the financial year. The university paid a total of €21.56 million on external consultancy and advisory fees for the financial year, largely driven by work on capital projects and transformation costs. A further €217,443 was paid out by the university on legal settlements. UCD made €23.56 million from medical testing, a slight decrease from the prior year, in which it recorded revenues of €23.94 million. According to the accounts, the college's best-paid employee is not the university president Orla Feely on a salary of €238,993: a further employee receives a salary of between €340,001 and €350,000. UCD has total staff costs of €455.9 million across its 6,139 employees. More than 200 employees are paid a salary in excess of €150,000.
Washington Post
2 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
7 readers grade this year's commencement speeches
Regarding Matt Bai's May 25 Sunday Opinion column, 'Graduates speak their minds. Universities freak out.': Bai is wrong about Cecilia Culver's commencement speech at George Washington University. This is not a First Amendment issue. No one disputes that 'higher education exists to challenge our preconceptions' or that Culver had a First Amendment right to say what she wanted. Rather, she veered from her approved speech when, clearly, there was and is an appropriate time and place for her to express her position on a matter she apparently feels so deeply about.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
Graduate School—Who Should Foot The Bill?
Graduate students hold nearly half of all federal student loan debt—but receive the least attention in education policy. It's time for a shared solution. getty Higher education is dominating the headlines, whether federal funding cuts, DEI policies, research restrictions, or student debt. However, there is little focus on one student population being hit the hardest—graduate students. Students earning master's and doctoral degrees are essential to the academic ecosystem—they lead research, teach undergraduates, and advance innovation. Yet, graduate students are seeing their work and positions being stripped away. With fewer opportunities and the current administration along with Congress seeking to shift the burden of financing higher education away from the government and towards the private sector, individual colleges or the individual, concern is growing about the future of essential professions that require advanced degrees—doctors, scientists, lawyers, professors, and business leaders. Graduate students make up 16% of all borrowers, but they account for 47% of all loans provided by the federal government. This is roughly $39 billion in one year. So, who should be footing the bill for these advanced degrees: the government and taxpayers, corporations, or the individual? The answer depends on your rationale for education. If you believe education exists to enrich society and strengthen Democracy, graduate degrees clearly play a role. Those with advanced degrees are more likely to vote, volunteer, and be more civically involved. In fact, 64% of House members, 79% of Senators, and 20% of their staff hold graduate degrees. In 2023, 21% of all Federal workers held advanced degrees. As of this year at the state level, approximately 85% of those with the highest positions (Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, and Secretary of State) held advanced degrees. In sum, those with this graduate-level education attainment are highly represented in the most influential offices of our Democracy and are among the most civically engaged citizens. Under this rationale, the government and taxpayers should share in the cost of graduate education. If you view education attainment primarily as a means for personal mobility, then graduate school plays a significant part in that outcome. The median salary for those with Master's, a Professional (Law, Medicine, etc.) or Doctoral (PhD) degrees in 2024 was approximately between $95,600-$123,000 a year compared to only $80,236 for bachelor's degree holders. While this varies by field, experience, and location, the premium for a graduate degree tends to be higher. Under this rationale, the benefit is primarily for the individual, and they should share in the cost of education. The third rationale is a bit more complex. As employers demand higher credentials, graduate education becomes less a personal choice and more a professional requirement. 16% of jobs will require a graduate degree by 2031 compared to 8% in 1983. If employers adhere to this educational ideology and desire workers to have graduate credentials instead of developing those skills internally, then, under this rationale, corporate America should share the cost of education. The truth is that we as a society expect education to do it all—advance individuals, strengthen Democracy, and power the economy. Yet we often forget the cost of preparing future generations. If we collectively want to share education's rewards, then we must also share the costs.
Washington Post
4 days ago
- General
- Washington Post
Hungary's leader came for my university. Now Trump is coming for Harvard.
Michael Ignatieff, a Canadian historian, was president and rector of Central European University from 2016 to 2021. The Trump administration's attacks on Harvard University and higher education are the most serious assault on academic freedom in American history. Nothing compares to it: not the clampdown on free speech during World War I, not Sen. Joseph McCarthy's harassment of professors in the 1950s. The administration has demanded control over hiring and curriculum, canceled billions in federal research funding, and, most recently, wants to annul the university's ability to accept foreign students.
Arab News
29-05-2025
- General
- Arab News
Harvard grads cheer commencement speakers who urge the school to stand strong
CAMBRIDGE, Massachusetts: Harvard graduates celebrated commencement on Thursday at a pivotal time for the Ivy League school, cheering speakers who emphasized maintaining a diverse and international student body and standing up for truth in the face of attacks by the Trump administration. Harvard's battles with Trump over funding and restrictions on teaching and admissions presented another challenge for the thousands of graduates who started college as the world was emerging from a pandemic and later grappled with student-led protests over the war in Gaza. 'We leave a campus much different than the one we entered, with Harvard at the center of a national battle of higher education in America,' Thor Reimann told his fellow graduates. 'Our university is certainly imperfect, but I am proud to stand today alongside our graduating class, our faculty, our president with the shared conviction that this ongoing project of veritas is one that is worth defending.' Other schools face the loss of federal funding and their ability to enroll international students if they don't agree to the Trump administration's shifting demands. But Harvard, which was founded more than a century before the nation itself, has taken the lead in defying the White House in court and is paying a heavy price. A school under threat Among the Trump administration's latest salvos was asking federal agencies to cancel about $100 million in contracts with the university. The government already canceled more than $2.6 billion in federal research grants, moved to cut off Harvard's enrollment of international students and threatened its tax-exempt status. Visa interviews for international students admitted to schools nationwide were halted on Tuesday, and Trump said Wednesday that Harvard should reduce its international enrollment from 25 percent to about 15 percent. Sustained by a $53 billion endowment, the nation's wealthiest university is testing whether it can be a bulwark against Trump's efforts to limit what his administration calls antisemitic activism on campus, which Harvard sees as an affront to the freedom to teach and learn nationwide. Citing campus protests against Israel as proof of 'antisemitic violence and harassment,' the Trump administration has demanded that Harvard make broad leadership changes, revise its admissions policies, and audit its faculty and student body to ensure the campus is home to many viewpoints. Harvard President Alan Garber disputed the government's allegations, saying in a letter this month that the school is nonpartisan and has taken steps to root out antisemitism on campus. He insisted that Harvard is in compliance with the law, calling the federal sanctions an 'unlawful attempt to control fundamental aspects of our university's operations.' In response to the administration's threats, Harvard has sued to block the funding freeze and persuaded a federal judge to temporarily halt the ban on enrolling international students. During a hearing in Boston on Thursday, the judge extended her order blocking the ban. Calls for Harvard to stand strong Garber didn't directly touch on the Trump administration threats Thursday. But he did get a rousing applause when he referenced the university's global reach, noting that it is 'just as it should be.' Others speakers were more direct. Speaking in Latin, salutatorian Aidan Robert Scully delivered a speech laced with references to Trump policies. 'I say this: ... Neither powers nor princes can change the truth and deny that diversity is our strength,' Scully said. It was a sentiment echoed by Yurong 'Luanna' Jiang, a Chinese graduate who studied international development. She described growing up believing that the 'world was becoming a small village' and finding a global community at Harvard. 'When I met my 77 classmates from 32 different countries, the countries I knew only as colorful shapes on a map turned into real people, with laughter, dreams and the perseverance to survive the long winter in Cambridge,' she said of the other students in her program. 'Global challenges suddenly felt personal.' Now, though, she said she wonders whether her worldview is under threat. 'We're starting to believe those who think differently, vote differently or pray differently, whether they are across the ocean or sitting right next to us, are not just wrong — we mistakenly see them as evil,' she said. 'But it doesn't have to be this way.' Others weigh in Dr. Abraham Verghese, a bestselling author and Stanford University expert on infectious diseases, opened his keynote address by saying he felt like a medieval messenger 'slipping into a besieged community.' He praised Harvard for 'courageously defending the essential values of this university and indeed of this nation,' and told students that more people than they realize have noticed the example they've set. 'No recent events can diminish what each of you have accomplished here,' Verghese said. On Wednesday, basketball Hall of Famer and activist Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the 'Class Day' speaker, praising Harvard for standing up to the Trump administration and comparing Garber's response to Rosa Parks' stand against racist segregation. 'After seeing so many cowering billionaires, media moguls, law firms, politicians and other universities bend their knee to an administration that is systematically strip-mining the US Constitution, it is inspiring to me to see Harvard University take a stand for freedom,' he said. Brynn Macaulay, who received a master's degree in public and global health, said she hopes such students will keep enrolling because they bring a wealth of knowledge and perspective. 'On a personal level, it feels like somebody is attacking people that I love and that I consider to be family,' she said. Samartha Shrestha, a fellow public health graduate from Spokane, Washington, said it was disheartening to see the funding cuts' impacts — one of his professors was laid off — and international students' worrying. 'I'm hopeful that they're able to continue getting an education from one of the best, if not the the best, universities in the whole world,' he said. 'My hope and dream is that one day they do graduate, just like I did today, and get to carry on the Harvard tradition to bring change wherever they go in the world.'
