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Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Third Level Education The Centre for Cross Border Studies Main Office: 39 Abbey Street, Armagh BT61 7EB Tel. (028) 3751 1550 Fax. (028) 3751 1721 (048 from the Republic of Ireland) Email: [email protected] Dublin Office: Room QG11, Business School, Dublin City University, Dublin 9 Tel. (01) 7008477 Fax. (01) 7008478 (00 353-1 from Northern Ireland) Email: [email protected] Website: www.crossborder.ie or www.qub.ac.uk/ccbs 2 CONTENTS Page Introduction by Olivia O’Leary 5 Ms Carmel Hanna MLA, Minister for Employment and Learning 7 Mr Noel Dempsey TD, Minister for Education and Science 11 Sir Howard Newby, Chief Executive, Higher Education Funding Council for England Higher Education in the 21st Century: An English Perspective 15 Professor Malcolm Skilbeck, Keynote Speaker Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Third Level Education: Challenges for the Universities 25 Professor Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh, NUI Galway Response to Malcolm Skilbeck’s paper 31 Questions and Discussion: First Day Chaired by Olivia O’Leary 39 Mr Richard Riley, Former US Secretary of Education and Former Governor of South Carolina American Higher Education in a Diverse World 53 Mr Nikolaus van der Pas, Director-General for Education and Culture of the European Commission Higher Education: The European Dimension and Beyond 61 Closing Discussion: Second Day Chaired by Dr Art Cosgrove, President, NUI Dublin 67 Closing Remarks, Professor Gerry McCormac, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Queen’s University Belfast 81 Appendix 1: A Briefing Paper on the Irish Third Level Education Systems, North and South 83 Appendix 2: Conference Programme: Ireland as a Centre of Excellence in Third Level Education 99 Appendix 3: Biographies of Speakers and Chairpersons 101 Appendix 4: Conference Participants 105 3 4 INTRODUCTION If cross-border co-operation were going to develop anywhere, one would have expected it in the enlightened sphere of third level education. It hasn’t really happened, however, so a conference to find out how Ireland, North and South, could co-operate to become a centre of excellence at third level was bound to produce some challenging ideas. This was even more so when it brought together so many of the leading names in third level education throughout the island and internationally. Professor Malcolm Skilbeck, a world authority on education and the conference’s keynote speaker, probably spoke for everybody when he said that third level institutions had a moral responsibility to give a lead in North South co-operation – they had operational freedom to take initiatives and a fundamental responsibility to the well-being and interests of the state and citizens who support them. So why has so little been done? Three main reasons emerged in discussion: firstly, the Northern Ireland ‘Troubles’, which created practical difficulties; secondly, little political funding and support by governments until recently; thirdly, the fact that universities compete fiercely with one another and find it difficult to collaborate in the same city, let alone across the border. So how could both parts of Ireland co-operate to develop as a centre of third level excellence? Among the suggestions were: collaboration on research; joint degrees; a collective North-South effort to maximise our advantage as an English-speaking area to attract students from overseas. Along the way, however, was some fascinating debate on what the primary function of third level institutions is; what their relationship should be with the societies and economies in which they are based; and whether co-operation and competition can exist comfortably side by side. Finally, a hopeful note. Many conference participants regretted the fact that a body specifically set up to encourage third level collaboration on the island – the Conference of University Rectors in Ireland – had become dormant. We now hear, some six months after the Armagh conference, that the CRI is to become active again. It’s good to talk. Olivia O’Leary, conference chairperson April 2003 5 6 Thursday 10 October OFFICIAL CONFERENCE OPENING Chairperson: Professor Gerry McKenna Vice-Chancellor, University of Ulster Ms Carm el H an n a MLA, Min ister fo r Em plo ym en t an d Learning Good afternoon, I would like to welcome you all, especially my Irish counterpart and friend, Noel Dempsey TD. I am very pleased to see among the guest list we have practically all the main players in Irish higher education attending this conference. I want to commend Andy Pollak, Chris Gibson and the Centre for Cross Border Studies for their initiative in organising this conference. This is first time that the nine universities as well as other institutions on this island have come together to discuss ways in which we can improve our profile as a centre of excellence in higher education. I want to especially welcome our overseas visitors and, in particular, former US Education Secretary Richard Riley, who personally, and as part of the Clinton administration, has demonstrated so much practical goodwill to this country. This small island of Ireland, 32,000 square miles, just over five million people, is similar in area to the American state of West Virginia. It surely makes sense that there be ever-closer co-operation between the nine universities on the island, to the mutual benefit of all involved. I have to acknowledge that it is with very mixed feelings that I speak to you today. It is likely that if this conference had been held next week I would not be talking to you as Minister. Like many, I feel a great sense of frustration at the events of recent days and previously. A shadow is hanging over the future of devolved institutions in the North, and the democratic will of the majority of Irish people is being continually thwarted by events which we are helpless to influence. Whatever the recriminations between various parties in recent days, it is clear that the will of the people is being continuously thwarted. I am clear on what the people of Ireland voted for in 1998. More people on this island voted for parties which are part of the democratic nationalist tradition which wishes to live in peace, friendship, equality and harmony with the people of the unionist tradition and indeed those who are not part of either of those traditions. I am part of that democratic nationalist tradition. I am also a social democrat. It has been said over the last few days that unionism is in crisis, that loyalist paramilitaries are on the streets, and that is true. But physical force nationalism is also in crisis, and until physical force nationalism gets its house in order political processes on this island will continue to be frozen. 7 The people of Ireland, especially in the North, have never suffered from an excess of good governance. The undermining of the integrity of the processes and institutions which have been endorsed by the people of Ireland with the kind of stop-go governance to which we have been subjected cannot be allowed to continue. I do not know what effect this crisis is going to have on young men and women leaving education and looking for their first job. Or what effect it will have on adults who have problems reading and writing and who need support to overcome those difficulties. What effect is it going to have on students entering universities and further education colleges for the first time? And, most importantly, what effect is it going to have on our children and those future generations on whose behalf we have been charged with bringing good governance closer to the people? I know not everybody thinks about politics, or indeed about the Good Friday Agreement, on a daily basis. But I have been eating, drinking and dreaming the Good Friday Agreement for so many years that I know that certainly in the next few days when this does suddenly collapse, or go into suspension, whatever we want to call it, I think it is going to be the equivalent of watching a friend die – when what has happened really doesn’t hit you until that person has died, and I think that is how I am going to feel in the next couple of days. I had to get that off my chest, but I suppose I had better say something about education! I don’t know if Ireland in early Christian times ever really should have been called the ‘island of saints and scholars’, but we certainly persuaded ourselves of the fact. I note that in the United States, though not in Ireland, a recent book by Thomas Cahill, How the Irish Saved Civilisation, featured in the bestseller list for many months. The Irish proverb – ‘education is easy carried’ – testifies to the extent to which the people of Ireland esteem the intrinsic value of education. My Department’s strategy for education – and I had better make sure I have got the priorities in order here – is social inclusion and widening access to third level education; a higher education system which is of the highest quality and promotes the highest standard of teaching and learning; and enhancing the contribution of higher education to the needs of the economy. These key themes match very well with the themes of today’s conference. Higher and further education is now one of the largest and growing industries in the world. UNESCO estimates that there are 88 million university students worldwide and almost all those students are to be found in huge state-funded public systems created by government, and funded for the most part out of general tax revenue.

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