THE GOVERNMENT is expected to announce the establishment of a national strategy for higher education later this week.
The strategy is likely to shape the development of the third-level sector for decades to come, according to Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe.
The Minister is likely to announce the strategy on his return from official business in Bahrain later this week.
A review group could decide on a major rationalisation of higher education. It is likely to recommend much closer collaboration – and even mergers – between third-level colleges.
While the group will consider funding issues, the possible return of fees will be considered separately by the Cabinet in April when Mr O’Keeffe tables his proposals.
The return of fees is now widely expected in education circles. Students already in college may not be liable, according to education sources.
The new fees regime is expected to be supported by the a new graduate tax and/or a student loan scheme. But likely revenues from these initiatives remain unclear.
The strategy group will include representatives of Irish business and international experts as well as Irish academics and representatives of vocational groups.
The group will be supported by a secretariat led by Fergal Costello, a senior figure in the Higher Education Authority.
The work of the group will be dominated by the funding crisis facing the university sector. UCC and UCD in particular are struggling with heavy debts after years of expansion.
Last week, UCD president Dr Hugh Brady told staff the scale of the financial crisis at UCD made cutbacks inevitable.
The strategy will be the first overview of the sector since the OECD review in 2004. It will:
Examine the funding issues in the higher education sector;
Assess the institutional mix in the sector between the seven universities and the 14 institutes of technology;
Analyse the demands likely to be placed on the system;
Review the current use of resources.
The establishment of the new strategy – first mooted two years ago – has been much delayed.
Speaking at Cork Institute of Technology last year, Mr O’Keeffe said the strategy provided an important opportunity to “set the sector on a direction of development and change that will serve vital national economic and social interests into the future”.
He added: “I would be sorry to see that opportunity impeded by the adoption of closed ideological positions on important policy questions at this stage.”
The Government wants higher education to be one of the key engines driving economic recovery, but colleges say the funding crisis is undermining their potential.
The Government has set ambitious targets for the third-level sector. It says the percentage of school leavers attending college should increase from 58 per cent to over 70 per cent within a decade. But an increase in student numbers from 140,000 at present to about 180,000 within a decade would cost an additional €500 million annually.
The OECD review in 2004 backed the return of tuition fees and a “quantum leap” in funding in order to boost the international standing of the third-level sector in the Republic.
While research funding has increased to record levels, core funding for the universities has declined significantly in recent years, according to the Irish University Association, the representative group for university presidents.