THIRD level colleges are "circumventing" labour legislation in order to cut costs, the annual conference of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has been told.
Mr Eugene Wall, president of IFUT, said recruitment practices in some colleges were geared towards circumventing the legislation on contract employment. The result was the "deliberate casualisation" of the academic profession.
"This policy is not only exploitative of vulnerable individuals but it is also myopic and self destructive. It is certain to have damaging long term implications for quality in third level education," he told the conference.
A university system which offers only part time employment or short term or non renewable contracts to new academics cannot expect to attract and retain high calibre individuals. The most promising and most talented researchers and teachers' are likely to gravitate towards careers elsewhere which offer stable employment and worthwhile career structures."
Mr Wall said higher education worldwide was facing a serious crisis of investment. The "pile em high, teach em cheap" philosophy had led to larger classes, less personalised attention and more intensive workloads for staff.
A motion calling for the establishment of an all Irish university was referred back to the executive after a lively debate.
Proposing the motion, Mr Micheal O Dochartaigh of UCD said the growth in Gaelscoileanna had shown there was a demand for Irish medium education. Irish speakers had a basic civil right to an education at all levels in their mother tongue.
Mr Brendan O Cochlain, of UCG, said the non availability of courses in Irish was a "disgrace". "Thirty years ago, you could do a degree in Irish in UCG; now you can only do the first year in Irish. The system is a farce."
However, Mr Brendan Boylan of St Patrick's, Drumcondra, said the motion betrayed a "parochial" view of what a university should be. The language of science would never be Irish. The motion was self indulgent, he concluded.
