A private commercial college has mounted a High Court challenge to a decision by the Minister for Education precluding it from seeking to provide state-funded undergraduate degree courses in computers and technical skills. Mr Justice Peter Kelly yesterday granted leave to Griffith College, Dublin, to seek an order quashing the Minister's decision not to allow it to bid for the provision of courses under the Meeting Skills Needs initiative for 1998.
He told Mr Conleth Bradley, counsel for the college, that it could also seek declarations that the Minister had erred in law, had breached fair procedures, and that Griffith College had a legitimate expectation that its bid be decided on criteria published before it made its application.
Mr Justice Kelly said if the matter was not decided long before the start of the academic year the college would lose this year for taking in students. He fixed September 10th for the hearing. Mr Bradley told the court that as part of a Government initiative to provide 4,000 new places a year to meet the evolving needs of business, the Higher Education Authority had been asked to manage a bidding process to increase graduate intake.
In April 1997, the college had been deemed to be an "eligible" third-level institution and had been invited to submit proposals for the provision of undergraduate honours degree courses for the Minister's Meeting Skills Needs in Computer Software Engineering. Following lengthy negotiations, the college had been told by letter earlier this month that the Minister was not in a position to approve the allocation of public funds for the provision of the proposed third-level places by the college.
Mr Bradley said the reason given was that "it was not possible for the Minister to come to a conclusion in relation to the issue of avoiding a precedent for the application of free fees generally for all students in private commercial colleges".