Colleges to lose €50m if they miss new targets

By Katherine Donnelly. UNIVERSITIES and other third-level colleges face the prospect of having up to 10pc of their state funding withheld if they fail to reach new performance targets. It is part of a revolutionary change to how higher education is funded, which will – for the first time – link how much colleges receive in state grants to how well they perform. The new "stick and carrot" approach will rate colleges under a number of different headings, such as student retention, research and matching graduates to the needs of industry. More...