In the midst of reports of vast university funding cuts and government tightening of purse strings, The Gown revealed some rare good news for the student body of Northern Ireland with reports of possible grant increases and a freeze in fees. With this carrot in hand, The Gown took to the streets to gauge if anyone actually cared, or if indeed the prospect of life at Queen’s was only made more tempting because of a night on the rip at the Hatfield.

BY JASON CONLON

As expected, the A-Level students we spoke to were reading a variety of subjects, including a lot of ‘non-traditional’ subjects. When asked if they felt there were too many ‘Mickey Mouse’ degrees today – an argument put forth by the government and wider media – leading to a surplus of students, some of the people interviewed were surprisingly candid. Sinead Gorman from Dungannon said: “It annoys me a lot when you get the likes of people dropping out after fifth year, bumming around in tech for a bit then announcing ‘I’m heading to University!’ ”  When we put forth to Sinead that everyone is surely entitled to the right of third level education, her friend Aine McSorely diplomatically replied: “Oh yes, we’re not against that. It’s just the way the system allows them to get there in the first place that seems kind of wrong, you know. I mean, if they were to be encouraged to stay on at school and do the hard graft, A-Levels and then be granted a place, it would be like they earned it.”

Gavin Teague from Armagh seemed overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the prospect of Queen’s in September. He was honest enough though, in the reasons for his unbridled joy. “Yeah, I mean I’ve studied hard for the last 7 years of my life and my family will hopefully be proud of me, going to Queen’s and all. But you hear about the craic up in Belfast and the wreckin’ through the Holylands and you just want to go and experience it for yourself.”

Most people were indifferent to any prospect of departmental funding cuts and how it may affect them, even at Queen’s. But Julie-Ann Edwards, a sixth form Methodist College student, expressed concern for the long term. “I’d say that not a lot of people would notice it or think of it to be ‘real’, because it’s just in the papers and not directly affecting anyone. But my brother just graduated recently and only just managed to get himself on a post-graduate course. I’d worry that in a few years only the students with the very, very top grades will get in, leaving lots of us disappointed. Then what do we do?”

Whilst a higher all round academic standard may sound great for society, and potentially weed out Sinead and Aine’s ‘Mickey Mouse slackers’, what the rest of the people left on the scrap heap would do is hard to imagine. But that is all purely hypothetical at this stage of course. Northern Ireland’s general student body seem to have the confidence to handle anything that life will throw at them. The likes of Gerard Rafferty form Downpatrick certainly won’t be phased anyway, because “We’ll plough on ahead up and keep her lit”.