IT IS a battle that has been raging behind the closed doors of Irish universities for the last couple of years, and the public knows little of it. Yet the results could adversely affect almost everyone who goes on to third-level education.

In the last three years, many courses in the arts and social sciences have been downgraded in almost all of the seven universities around the country. While the abolition of the degree in acting at Trinity College Dublin and the downgrading of women's studies in NUI Galway have received national attention, academics say these cases represent just a fraction of what is really going on.

"Morale has never been lower in Irish universities, " TCD economist Dr Se�n Barrett told the Sunday Tribune. "The socalled restructuring at third level has promoted a civil war amongst academia and for no reason other than egomania and the desire amongst university heads to achieve international status. Because of this, almost every department in humanities and social sciences has been under one threat or another in the last few years."

Behind the re-structuring of Irish universities is a system commonly known as ARAM (Academic-based Resource Allocation Model). Under ARAM, university budgets are being re-allocated from the arts, social studies, business, law and economics towards the areas of science, engineering and computing.

This is despite the fact that student demand for the humanities has never been stronger, and the high points for these courses attract high-calibre students. At the same time, the sciences have seen their average entry points fall 24% in recent years, as universities struggle to fill expanded courses.

"Under ARAM, there is an inbuilt bias against students of humanities, " said Professor Liam Breathnach of the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies.

"The arts department courses are not expensive to run. They're referred to as 'chalk and talk' because all you need is a blackboard and books. But under the new system, departments are evaluated on how much money they spend? Those that spend more money, will be given more. Humanities research such as books are discounted because they don't require money and those departments are instantly disadvantaged when it comes to funding."

For students, this funding system means that, within the period of a year, the degree course they are studying can be changed entirely, amalgamated into another faculty or even abolished.

This is what happened to students of early and mediaeval Irish in UCD, who returned to college last September to discover that their three-year degree course had been cancelled.

"UCD abolished the course without any dialogue whatsoever and students in the middle of the degree had to change their entire course, " said Breathnach, who along with 23 international professors, wrote to UCD asking it to reconsider the decision. The letter was never acknowledged.

"Even if only a small number of students were enrolled in the course, it is the constitutional obligation of the university to support the study of Ireland's cultural heritage. Even more importantly, with only two staff, the savings the college made were positively minuscule, while the loss was great."

In NUI, Galway, a decision was taken recently to close the women's studies centre and amalgamate it into the department of political science and sociology - a move that has caused nationwide outrage.

In Trinity, as well as the abolition of the acting degree, the last three years has seen six changes being made to the arts department. Arts (humanities), arts (letters) and Bess (business, economics and social studies) were reduced to two faculties, which are in turn now being restructured.

According to social commentators, this move ensures that the faculty will always be outvoted by medicine and science.

According to Barrett, universities have become far more concerned with where they stand in international league tables than about the quality of courses they are offering to undergraduates.

"Ireland has more scientists per 1,000 of the population than the rest of Europe, but still the heads of universities are pushing for fourth-level graduates in science and engineering that will lend some calibre to their establishment, " he said.

"If students want drama, then the job of the university is to provide that, instead of pushing kids into science and computer courses they don't want."

Professor Jane Ohlmeyer, head of the school of history humanities in Trinity, which is made up of art history, women's gender studies and classics, strongly refuted claims that humanities in Trinity was being downgraded.

"This is not a reflection of my experience in Trinity, where I believe humanities is given the utmost support by the provost, " she said. "The whole department is incredibly dynamic, we are going from strength to strength and any claims to the contrary are very, very unfortunate."

Breathnach, meanwhile, believes there needs to be public discussion about the issue, which has started a socalled civil war between academics.

"There has been no debate about this, the political establishment has remained entirely dumb on the issue, " he said.

"But the parents of children going to university should know what's going on.

Because in my opinion, if this is allowed to continue, it will destroy the university system and all that is good in it."

ISSUES FACED BY HUMANITIES DEPARTMENTS

The Economics of Restructuring Irish Universities, an article by Dr Sean Barrett published last year by the Institute of Public Administration (IPA), dealt with the issues faced by humanities departments in Irish universities.

Barrett noted that because the restructuring system was based on staff numbers rather than student numbers, "departments with a low student-staff ratio gain and those with a large number of students per staff member lose."

This is despite the fact that humanities (or 'chalk and talk') subjects already cost nearly half as much as the sciences to run.

"Since faculty deans have an important role in determining academic priorities, the reduction of input from the arts, business and social science areas is a significant downgrading, " said Barrett.