The new chairman of the Higher Education Authority, Dr Don Thornhill, has said there must be "parity of esteem" between the universities and the institutes of technology.
Dr Thornhill, who retired as Secretary of the Department of Education and Science last month, said the universities and the institutes, formerly the regional technical colleges, were the "two pillars of the third-level system.
"The binary system is important for economic and social progress. Both sectors have the capacity to work in partnership with one another."
He told a meeting of UCC (now NUI Cork) graduates last night that the partnership should be based on "parity of esteem and diversity of mission. It would not be consistent with the important concept of partnership if one sector were to be regarded as less important than the other."
Dr Thornhill also said a national qualifications certification structure providing "progression from foundation to post graduate degree level" was "an essential requirement for a learning society."
Prof John Coolahan of NUI Maynooth warned against university research being divorced from teaching, as was happening in the UK.
He said this might seem logical now, with the pressure on resources and the emphasis on links with industry. But in 20 to 30 years such a divorce would be "highly destructive of the quality of teaching and research."
So-called "teaching universities" would no longer have the depth, rootedness and credibility of real universities.
Prof Coolahan also expressed concern that a new "knowledge gap" would open up between the dynamic, "high-tech" driven universities of the advanced countries and under-resourced universities in the developing world. Irish universities had a "moral responsibility" to liaise with such universities, which needed assistance.
He was also worried about the small proportion of postgraduates at Irish universities - at under 16 per cent one of the lowest in the developed world. It was shortsighted to be over-concentrating resources on undergraduates.