Sir, – If Lyndsey Earner-Byrne summarises very comprehensively the benefits to society of a third-level education (March 14th), the current student demonstrations going on in the heart of Trinity College Dublin are testimony to how those benefits have been severely threatened as the third-level sector becomes yet increasingly corporate in character and tainted by impersonal managerialism. The Trinity students are to be commended for the courage, energy and lucidity of their movement. Their slogan, "Take back Trinity", clearly highlights the extent to which the traditional liberal ethos of third-level education has been undermined by a hypocritical and tyrannical neo-liberalism that has led to widespread disaffection amongst academics, students and support staff. It is, indeed, time to "take back the Irish university" but this is not a task for the faint-hearted. – Yours, etc,
Dr SARAH ALYN
STACEY, FTCD
French Department,
Trinity Centre for
Medieval and
Renaissance Studies,
Trinity College Dublin,
Dublin 2.