A transformation of higher education with new-style universities in Dublin and Waterford is proposed in a major new report.
The report, by one of the leading world authorities in the sector, says Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) should be given university status.
It also says that the sharp division between the seven universities and the other 12 institutes of technology should be scrapped. Instead, it wants to see the institutes in areas such as Cork, Galway and Limerick forging closer links or even amalgamating with the universities in these cities, creating "higher-education networks".
The report argues for a "more fluid, flexible and integrated" third-level system which could respond more effectively to national priorities. The current system, it says, lacks overall direction and purpose.
Prof Malcolm Skilbeck - the author of a series of landmark reports on Irish education - says the current deep divide between the seven universities and the institutes "inhibits creativity and innovation".
Even the largest institutes, he says, do not enjoy anything like the freedom, power, prestige and influence enjoyed by the universities.
He says a move to give DIT and WIT university status, with a "very clear industrial and technological mission", would introduce a new kind of university. It would also challenge traditional views of the university sector.
Prof Skilbeck, a former deputy head of education at the OECD, is the author of The University Challenge. Published two years ago, his report, commissioned by the Conference of University Heads in Ireland, is a virtual template for change across the university sector.
On this occasion, however, he was commissioned by DIT itself. DIT is one of the largest third-level institutions in the State, with over 20,000 full and part-time students, but its decade-long campaign for university status has still not achieved its aim. The campaign has been led by its president, Dr Brendan Goldsmith, who retires shortly.
Prof Skilbeck was a member of a review body that reported on its application for university status five years ago. He supported the application but it was rejected by the Higher Education Authority.
The Skilbeck report says the creation of universities at DIT and WIT would reflect the pressing need for more graduates as the State moves towards a still more highly-skilled and knowledge-based economy.
Prof Skilbeck dismissed the view that the incidence of "sub-degree " work in these colleges would undermine their claims to be regarded as a university. There are, he says, scores of well-regarded colleges in Northern Ireland and elsewhere where degree and non-degree work was taking place in the one campus.