In an important address at University College Cork yesterday, the author of the recent OECD report on third-level education underlined the challenge facing the sector in this State. Prof Michael Shattock said universities were at a crossroads. Without substantial reform, there was a real danger they could become marginalised in an increasingly competitive global environment.
The much-praised OECD report identifies two components as being essential if Irish universities are to move up the international league. (At present, only Trinity College is ranked among the world's top 200.) The OECD believes sweeping internal reform augmented by a "quantum leap" in funding is required if the sector is to achieve the ambitious goals set by the Government.
There is little sign that this funding will materialise in the short term. The Estimates, which provided a six per cent increase in current spending after a cumulative cut of more than 14 per cent over the past two years, have brought strong protests from the colleges. The president of University College Dublin, Dr Hugh Brady, accused the Government of undermining the OECD report. With the return of college fees off the political agenda, it appears that the universities will be asked to muddle through without anything like the funding that colleges in other OECD states take for granted.
There is also little sign that the Government is much exercised by the need for internal reform in our universities. In his address, Prof Shattock said the surge in student numbers in the past decade had tended to re-enforce old structures, instead of acting as a catalyst for change. The OECD proposed a new-style management in the third-level sector, more cost-efficient, more accountable, and one which would allow colleges be more responsive to social and economic needs. Some colleges, notably Trinity, UCD and UCC, have begun this process of internal reform. Radical plans are in train which could see departments closed or merged with others, as the colleges re-organise and rationalise.
The reform process has provoked strong protests in each college. Academics have understandable concerns that age-old traditions are being trampled upon. It is to be hoped that these concerns will be taken into account in the reform process. But there can be no hiding the fact that far-reaching change is essential.
The Government can help by supporting a proposed reform fund, backed by university heads, where colleges would be rewarded for achieving substantial internal change and meeting national objectives. To her credit, the Minister for Education and Science, Ms Hanafin, is said to support an incentive-based plan but she has still to muster support from her Cabinet colleagues. The hope must be that the proposal will gain the political backing it deserves. There is a great deal of Government rhetoric about its desire to build a world class university sector. But is it willing to support proposals which will help achieve this objective?