Time for third-level to tune into growth potential in international students

TALKBACK:THE THIRD-level system appears to be be in a state of some flux. Senior staff have been paid huge unauthorised bonuses at UCD, concern has been raised at the lack of contact time with lecturers across the sector and some students at the American College were forced to quit their course in mid-stream.

Mary Coughlan, meanwhile, has spoken a great deal about the need to reform higher education. It is now time that she showed her resolve to drive through the reforms necessary to make Ireland’s third-level sector world-class in every respect. The Government’s recent announcement that all departments and agencies will make whatever changes are necessary to attract international students highlights how important it is to push forward with the third-level reform agenda.

The dilemma facing the Government as they confront the need for third-level reform is similar to that in dealing with the reform of the banks. The universities deeply resent over-regulation of their affairs by the State – and yet the sector is completely dependent on State funding for the majority of its resources.

The State, on the other hand, wants the third-level sector to be as innovative and dynamic as possible, generating the intellectual seed capital of our future economic growth and development, while at the same time accepting their right to determine their modus operandi.

Getting the balance right between autonomy and regulation in our universities and IT’s, will be crucial to our ongoing economic recovery.

If we do get the balance right, we can bring about a transformation of our third-level sector, which will enable it to become a key driver to our future economic social and cultural development. As an English- speaking country with no colonial past, and with very positive relationships with many of the rapidly developing world economies (based on the work of our religious orders and development agencies) we are ideally placed to become a hub for international education.

Countries such as India and China with populations of more than a billion each are rapidly becoming the driving forces of the 21st-century economy. Yet currently studying in Ireland, we have only 500 and 1,000 students respectively, from these two emerging economic giants.

Recently, I met the president of one of the top-five engineering Universities in India, who indicated that their third-level sector has the capacity to educate only a small fraction of the students who want to study engineering in their country. The families of many of these students can afford to pay the international fees levied by Ireland, yet they have been unable to overcome visa difficulties.

A glance at the vacant places list on the CAO website shows that Ireland has many half-empty engineering faculty lecture theatres. It is an absolute no-brainer that we need to get our act together, to realise both the short- and long-term benefits of attracting international students.

Brian Mooney is a former president of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors