One of the country’s top academics has said Higher Education must be a priority for the new Government.

After seven years of spending cuts the Provost of Trinity College has said that the third level system urgently needs large scale investment.

Rising student numbers and falling numbers of academic staff means the higher education sector is under severe pressure.

Professor Patrick Prendergast has said the sector needs an increase in private as well as public funding: “It needs more than just a loan system, higher education is a public good as well as a private good, so it needs increased Government funding.

“But it also needs increased private funding and either that comes directly from people’s parents pockets or we have a loan system, students can borrow on an income contingent basis.

“Therefore they only pay back the loan if their income in later life goes above a certain threshold.”