Carlow College is facing criticism for allowing prospective students to apply for courses that it’s claimed the institution allegedly knew were going to be cancelled.
A public meeting in support of the 87 staff took place on Friday followed yesterday (Sunday) by a solidarity concert on the grounds of the Carlow town facility.
Social Democrats Senator Patricia Stephenson revealed that admissions staff spent the last three weeks phoning devastated applicants to tell them their September courses no longer exist.
Senator Stephenson slammed the handling of the situation as “disgraceful,” questioning why CAO applications were permitted to go ahead if a closure was already set in motion.
The move has left dozens of incoming students stranded just months before the academic year begins as she told KCLR News’ Stephen Byrne by saying; “I heard from one woman who works admissions and she had to ring up all the students in the last three weeks and tell them ‘I’m so sorry, you thought you were going to start a course in September and it’s gone’, why was that allowed to happen, why were they allowing CAO applications when they knew it was going to close, all of these question marks. The handling of this has just been absolutely disgraceful and that’s so evident in the hurt and the frustration and the devastation we heard tonight”.
