The university system in the Republic is being increasingly seen only as a driver of economic development, a major conference on the third-level sector was told yesterday.
Dr Gerald Mills, vice-president of the Irish Federation of University Teachers, told the conference at Trinity College Dublin that the restructuring under way in colleges had serious implications for both staff and students.
"Certain elements are common, such as emphasising research over teaching, combining existing departments into schools and imposing a managerial approach to university administration.
"Underlying these changes is an increasingly dominant view of the university system as a strategic component of the Irish economy and its development," he said.
Dr Don Thornhill, chairman of the National Competitiveness Council, said universities had no need to be defensive in their approach. "Change is almost always difficult; it is often messy. Yet failure to embrace change leads to decline and atrophy."
Dr Thornhill, a former head of the Higher Education Authority, suggested there were a number of reasons for the current "sense of disquiet" among university communities, including: the need to respond to change; financial stress; accountability and external scrutiny; and the threat to enduring and vital values.
He said some people in university communities fear that "freedom in teaching, scholarship, inquiry and publication are under threat. The increased interest by Government and business in scientific research is welcomed, but sometimes with caution."
This has raised concerns that the arts and humanities could be neglected and that academics would be forced to "follow the money".
Prof Kathleen Lynch of UCD warned of what she called an "increasing attempt to privatise public services, including education, so that citizens will have to buy them at market value rather than have them provided by the State". She said a recent report from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development had taken the view that "education is simply another market commodity for which we have to pay".
She continued: "This perspective has become normalised in policy and public discourses.
"Schools run purely as businesses are a growing phenomenon within and without Europe, and there is an increasing expectation that schools and universities will supplement their income from private sources, even though it is obvious that few such private sources are available."