THE PRIVATE online Hibernia College is set to provide the higher diploma in education (HDip), the main gateway to second-level teaching.
An application by Hibernia has been endorsed by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council. This is expected to be rubber-stamped shortly by the Teaching Council, which regulates the teaching profession. Hibernia is expected to offer the HDip from next year.
It told the awards council there was “high demand for a course delivered in a flexible online manner that didn’t require the student to give up their job or move away from home”.
Approval for the HDip is another coup for Hibernia College, which has already trained some 4,000 primary teachers through its postgraduate programme in primary education.
Hibernia’s critics will see the move as signalling the increased privatisation of education. Last year, the McCarthy report on the public service pointed out that Hibernia had managed to train thousands of primary teachers at no cost to the taxpayer. The annual cost of supports to St Patrick’s and Mary Immaculate teacher-training colleges was €40 million.
Earlier this year, Minister for Education Mary Coughlan told the Dáil education committee that Hibernia may be asked to provide other services.
At the same meeting, committee chairman Paul Gogarty said it was “extraordinary that Hibernia was able to deliver teacher training at such a small cost to the State”.
He also raised questions about the continued feasibility of some smaller teacher-training colleges.
The move into second-level teacher training will bring Hibernia into direct competition with the universities currently offering the programme: UCD, Trinity College, NUI Maynooth, NUI Galway, UCC, UL and Dublin City University.
HDip places are hugely oversubscribed, despite fees of about €5,000. Students are admitted on the basis of their primary degree, additional qualifications and teaching experience.
At present, Hibernia charges students almost €9,000 for places on its 18-month postgraduate primary teaching course. On average, only about 25 per cent of applicants are successful.
Hibernia teacher training is delivered using a mix of online content, online tutorials and face-to-face tuition.
When Hibernia’s teacher-training programme was first accredited, its most outspoken critics were the students from the traditional colleges of education. The students’ union of St Patrick’s College in Drumcondra staged a protest about the advent of “yellow pack” teachers.
Hibernia now trains more primary school teachers than any other programme in Ireland. Its president, Dr Seán Rowland, was recently appointed as a member of the Teaching Council by Ms Coughlan.
The college, which is celebrating its 10th year of operation, employs close to 100 full-time staff and another 400 contracted staff.