Ireland could take a hint from China's third-level ambitions

TEACHING MATTERS / Danny O'Hare: The appointment of Brigid McManus as minister Mary Hanafin's secretary-general at the Department of Education and Science puts in place a formidable duo to lead education reform over the coming years.

But what will determine the pair's place in history - whether they are remembered as prime movers or merely footnotes - will be their success in raising a single issue out of the departmental level and on to the mainstream national agenda.

That issue is the creation of world-class universities in Ireland. It is - or deserves to be - a national issue because our future economic development depends critically on it. Making our universities world- class is a necessary condition in achieving the leadership role we aspire to in the knowledge-based economy. It is by no means the only thing we have to do, but it is the first and the most fundamental - because from that everything else follows. Without it, none of the rest of the project can happen.

Throughout the world, heads of government are identifying themselves with major new educational initiatives; witness Tony Blair on top-up fees and the doubling of foreign students in higher education in the UK. This indicates an increasing awareness that higher education is a key contributor to national develop- ment and not merely an interest supported by an individual government department.

But we do not have to look abroad for precedents. The Programme for Research in Third- Level Institutions, one of the most exceptional initiatives in recent times which transformed Irish research and development, did not arise from the normal budget processes but from the intervention of government - and the Taoiseach specifically, with the enthusiastic support of the then minister for education and science, Micheál Martin. The fruits of that initiative are already evident.

Another national initiative that started out in a single government department was the creation of the billion-euro research fund arising from the Technology Foresight exercise within the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employ- ment. Its recommendations were not executed within that depart- ment's budget but were taken to Government as representing a nationally important issue which transcended individual departments.

The truth is that issues of truly national importance which cut across departments need support at the very centre of government, rather than leaving them to the vagaries of the usual interdepart- mental rivalries.

This was implicit in the OECD report, which recommended that the Taoiseach would chair the proposed National Council for Tertiary Education, Research and Innovation. Its membership is to be multi-departmental, illustrating once again that the development of higher education is a shared responsibility and not one solely for the educational ghetto.

But will the Taoiseach be interested? I suggest he is more likely to be so following his recent visit to China. He and the other Irish participants expected to find a country focused on low-cost production; what they saw was a country whose objectives are to skip the post-industrial era and go straight to the knowledge-based economy.

China's investments in university facilities, infrastructure and staff took our representatives aback. The Taoiseach could not have been but hugely impressed at what he saw. Hugh Brady, the president of UCD and a man well accustomed to the superb facilities at Harvard, was clearly gob- smacked by the facilities at the University of Hong Kong. I visited the same university 10 years ago and I, too, marvelled at the huge resources which it was being provided with as the Chinese prepared themselves to exploit the knowledge-based economy.

Our own needs pale into insignificance when put beside China's published aim to have some 150 world-class universities within 10 years. But the boldness of their aims, and their single- minded determination to bring them to fruition, may inspire the Taoiseach in his actions here at home. Perhaps, also, he came to realise that if Ireland is going to be a serious competitor in that world that China is focused on, we face an urgent need to raise our game.

Of course, China's ambitions can help Ireland. They need to educate without delay an elite of graduates and (mainly) post- graduates. According to the OECD, Ireland also needs to double its output of PhD graduates by 2010, but the throughput of Irish students is not there to achieve that much. Recruiting Chinese postgraduates could help and could have beneficial knock-on effects. Unlike Irish politicians, many Chinese political leaders have been academics - a fact that provides an opportunity for us to become influential in China.

A real illustration of this came when the Chinese Minister of Education recognised the vice president of NUI Galway as a former research collaborator and friend - much to the amazement of Mary Hanafin and the Taoiseach.

Back at home, the heads of our universities would do well to extend their lobbying activities to the task of making as many friends around the Cabinet table as possible, perhaps starting with former ministers of education. Micheál Martin should be a convert already, and it should be almost as easy to bring on board Seamus Brennan, whose commitment to economic development is well- known. Noel Dempsey will be a harder nut to crack, given his well-advertised antipathy for the third-level sector.

We will know the issue is moving on to the national agenda when the venue of meetings such as yesterday's summit between the minister and the third-level heads moves across the river to the Taoiseach's office in Upper Merrion Street.

Danny O'Hare is a former president of DCU