The Final Word: Come fly with me

by Paul Moore

One of the most important aspects of being a third level student is becoming independent. The most important aspect of being independent is living on one’s own for the first time and managing a budget to ensure that it is not spent on unnecessary ‘luxuries’ by the end of the first week – although these days finances are such that food has started to look like an unnecessary luxury.

When I was heading up departments at both the Derry and Coleriane campuses of the university one of the greatest frustrations for staff was the fact that virtually all the students commuted.

They were able to do so because they had used whatever funding available to them to buy cars and were still living with the bank of mum and dad. Many could have stayed on campus for the same, or indeed less, financial output but such is the car culture in the region that owning four wheels was more important than having a full university experience.

It also had the knock on effect that there were constant grumbles about the timetable – “I have a class at 9.15, how am I supposed to get there on time for that?” – and this, combined with the fact that many wanted to be free Monday and Friday so they could pursue part time work, left the campus bereft of bodies at nights and weekends, other than for bewildered and sombre international students rattling about the corridors like stones in a drink tin.

The situation with student accommodation has deteriorated even further since that time and is especially bad in the south of Ireland. Recently a case was cited of 18 international students sharing one two-bedroom house, a situation which I would suggest is far from supportive of ideal learning conditions. It has also created a situation which makes the daily commute of those I remember, in their Renault Clios and Vauxhall Corsas, seem positively arcane. It was reported last week that students from Donegal are flying each day to Dublin to attend their lectures.

Can you imagine how this news might be received in other countries? It is common knowledge that Ireland is a relatively stable economy but students flying to classes might indicate more extreme levels of wealth. I have this wonderful image of little Seamus or Mary finishing the porridge, being left down to the airport in the Toyota Supra and then being collected again at seven in the evening back in time for the bacon and cabbage.

Having said that what a journey to be making a couple of times a week. For the second year in a row Donegal Airport was voted the best airport in the world to arrive in. As you approach the airport the plane swings around Mount Errigal and skims along Carrickfinn beach before settling on the tarmac.

I would suggest not a great deal of hardship there.

On a more philosophical level, we may be seeing in these weekly flights peak level studentship.

We may have reached the tipping point of what third level education actually is. It may no longer be about the experience of having three years to develop your personality and intellect but merely about getting a piece of paper that allows you to enter the next level of certification which everyone seems to consider necessary to gain meaningful employment.

Third level institutions are going to have to reconsider what they are there for and how they might become supportive of the economy rather than places where academics can pursue their, sometimes obscure, research hobbies.

In the meantime, as I have regularly to visit Dublin for meetings at various institutions, I may well consider joining the Donegal students on their glorious weekly pilgrimage through the skies.