If truth is the first casualty of war, education is becoming the first significant casualty of our peace. Following incremental cuts to schools budgets and the abolition of the Signature Project to employ newly qualified teachers, financial restrictions have now progressed to higher education.
Ulster University is to axe 210 jobs this year and 1,200 student places over the next three years. Two months ago, Queen's University cut 236 staff and 1,000 student places.
As a result there will be 500 fewer students attending our local universities in September. The causes for the decline in higher education are easy to determine. The consequences are more difficult to quantify.
Local universities are contracting because they have received reduced funding from Stormont. While Westminster's austerity explains Stormont's difficulty to some extent, our universities' fortunes contrasts sharply with those in Scotland, another UK region which holds devolved powers over education.
Scottish university education is free. Our students pay nearly £4,000 per year. Scottish higher education provision is expanding. Ours is contracting. Responsibility for that difference lies to a large extent with the Minister for Employment and Learning.
Stephen Farry says that his solution to the universities' reductions in staff and students is to "launch a process of dialogue", probably in September. His words will be of little comfort to the hundreds of young people who will have to leave Northern Ireland to further their education.
In any case, Mr Farry might helpfully recognise that the time for talking has long since gone. Like some other ministers, he may be a victim of Stormont's dysfunctional Executive. However, his department has shown little appetite for a more strategic, Scottish-style management of higher education provision here.
Earlier this year, Ulster University closed 53 courses, including Ireland's only degree in housing management. This week the housing association, Choice, announced the building of 2,500 new social houses. Even the reduction of higher education provision lacks strategic oversight.
Mr Farry might also have learned from the unique structure of higher education in the Republic, where 14 cost effective Institutes of Technology offer specialised, industry-related degrees in areas such as science technology, business and finance. The north has no equivalent type of higher education provision.
The strategic focus in our two neighbouring jurisdictions is no doubt helped by the fact that they both have a single department of education. We enjoy the luxury of two.
The long-term impact of cutting educational funding at all levels will inevitably hinder economic and social development here.
Our politicians are often accused of spending too much time dwelling on the past. Their failure to adequately invest in education suggests that they are now prepared to ignore the future.
