Why not celebrate the 625-point student who aspires to an apprenticeship?

Each September the CAO offers and the “points race” cause great excitement in the media, as well as among students and their families. A few months later, the flurry of attention moves into the rear-view mirror and the academic year progresses, giving us time to reflect on the changes happening in the wider education ecosystem.

Last year the new Higher Education Authority Act came into law, with substantive and welcome changes in governance.

We would be fooling ourselves as a tertiary education sector if we believed that many people are waking up in the morning thinking about us.

There is, however, a discussion to be had about the nature of the ecosystem, further and higher education, the Education and Training Boards (ETBs), technological universities (TUs) and the universities we represent.

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The biggest mistake we could make now and from here on is to try to be too similar to each other. Evidence from other countries, such as the UK, suggests this would be bad for the overall system, bad for our ETBs, bad for our TUs, bad for our universities and, most importantly, bad for our learners. We value diversity in all other aspects of life and should aspire to it in higher and further education as well. It is a hallmark of a strong ecosystem, offering choice to learners.

There is no hierarchy of opportunity or achievement: there is instead a panorama of choice offering the learner the opportunity to achieve in their preferred pattern and celebrating with them when they do

When we talk about diversity in every other walk of life, whether it relates to gender, ethnicity, cultural, or background, we celebrate and value difference. We say that nobody is better or worse than the other, just different – and this is to be cherished. We don’t all fit in one size – and this is a good thing.

Likewise, if we are to value diversity in education, we should cherish and celebrate difference: no educational pathway is better or worse than the other, just different. There is therefore no hierarchy of opportunity or achievement: there is instead a panorama of choice offering the learner the opportunity to achieve in their preferred pattern and celebrating with them when they do.

What does this mean for our tertiary ecosystem in Ireland? We are too small a country to compete with each other: ETBs, TUs and universities. As we do in Galway and across our wider region, we can, together, be place-makers, offering a variety of high quality educational and employment opportunities in one place for students, staff and the wider region which Galway serves. There are many examples of this internationally, where cities and regions endowed with a variety of high quality educational institutions become a landing place for students and staff. And by high quality, we mean each institution serves its mission well.

Why not work together to support our respective missions? We in Galway already create a critical mass in one place with research and teaching synergies in, for example, the marine and med tech between Atlantic Technological University (ATU) and University of Galway. So why not have joint appointments such as joint professorships? More joint programmes (such as our existing collaboration in the biomedical regulatory space)? More sharing of facilities (as we do in Castlebar between ATU’s nursing school and University of Galway’s medical academy)? Tertiary degree programmes where learners commence with an ETB and complete with a university?

More radically, 85 per cent of PhD graduates in the EU go into industry. Where can opportunities be found for apprenticeship-type programmes, linking PhDs to placements? In the ETBs. Why not develop partnerships that see ETBs supporting the placement of PhD students from our universities?

This approach requires a new mindset in society, different from what we witness each September, celebrating the student with 625 points and seeing university as the natural progression for them. Ten per cent of students do not complete the Leaving Cert, and 35 per cent of the cohort who sit the Leaving Cert do not go straight on to a third-level institution. Of those who do, the average points are 300-400. Why not celebrate those students who find a different pathway to what interests them? Why not celebrate the 625-point student who aspires to an apprenticeship?

This perspective requires a debate about whether a TU or a university place is for everybody

New thinking is emerging. A pilot being developed this year will see tertiary education qualifications validated, with students commencing their journey in further education and progressing to a higher-education setting. There is growing appetite for collaborative provision, joint awards and regional engagement.

This perspective requires a different sense of success and “participation” that is not just grounded in a place in a TU or a university. And a debate about whether a TU or a university place is for everybody.

It also needs an understanding of the subtleties and the variety of institutions, a valuing of academic achievement – knowledge, skills and competencies – not just for points or for employment but as an education. And a recognition that, if we value and invest in apprenticeships, we also value and invest in research, sometimes for its own sake, knowing that we think as well as do. We are human beings – therefore we think, we read, we analyse, we are sometimes alone and sometimes together – and these are all valuable aspects of the human condition.

And we value all of what we are and what we can be, in all its diversity. Not better or worse, just different – and the better for it.

Orla Flynn is president of Atlantic Technological University; David Leahy is chief executive of the Galway-Roscommon Education and Training Board; Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh is president of University of Galway. This article is based on their collaborative presentation to the QQI’s 10th anniversary conference in Croke Park