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BH Associates met with Mr. Simon Harris, T.D., Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to discuss the Technological University of Southeast Ireland.

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD has today (28 July 2020) announced the appointment of an independent person to accelerate plans for a technological university in the South East.

Mr. Tom Boland, a former Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), will be the new independent Programme Executive Director for the TUSEI consortium comprising the Carlow and Waterford Institutes of Technology.

A survey of senior leaders in Irish higher education shows considerable support for key national objectives for higher education, but issues of accountability, regulation, institutional governance, and management are all viewed negatively by respondents. The survey and this article were completed before the COVID-19 pandemic, which has presented a whole new set of issues for governments and institutional leaders. Yet all these issues remain relevant.

Having a minister should ensure that higher education and research get a better hearing at Cabinet and a share of public resources proportionate to its importance. But if the creation of the department is to be really impactful it will require a response from the sector. Pleas for more funding, less regulation and more respect for autonomy are likely to get a better hearing from the new minister if combined with a demonstrated willingness among the institutions to see themselves as part of the solution to the fundamental challenges they now face. Sitting on the sidelines is not an option in the post-pandemic world.

Senior academics in Ireland feel their institutions would be in stronger financial positions if the Government would work harder to facilitate the recruitment of lucrative international students. However, a majority are also wary of becoming too dependent on international students for income – a problem which has been brutally exposed by the travel limitations brought in to fight the Covid-19 pandemic.

BH Associates congratulates the Munster Technological University consortium in achieving technological university status. BH Associates has enormously enjoyed chairing the Project Leadership Group since last September. Congratulations.

Creating a well-function higher education system is one of the six stated high-level objectives of the National Strategy published nine years ago. The intention was, and remains, the creation of a coherent system of interlocking higher education institutions, each playing to their strengths and combining to address national economic and social priorities. In support of this objective, the Strategy recommended a process of “strategic dialogue”. The key elements are the Minister for Education and Skills, sets out national objectives for higher education and each institution through a process of dialogue with the HEA enters into a performance agreement which contains the objectives they will address and the performance metrics to be applied, with potential funding implications in the event of a failure to meet them.

You are invited to join us on 11 June 2020 to discuss “systemness”, the discussion will be led by Professor Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor Emeritus of The State University of New York (SUNY).

The publication in July 2019 by the Minister for Education and Skills of proposals for legislation to reform the powers and functions of the Higher Education Authority brought the regulation of the system front and centre in discussions on higher education. At government and the wider political level, there appears to be a growing sense of frustration with the lack and/or weakness of powers of intervention in the sector to address perceived mismanagement or misgovernance.  Attached is a briefing note on the regulatory landscape in Ireland and the proposed legislation, and Peter Noonan’s talk on the regulation of Australian higher education, and reflections on Ireland.

Survey shows the Irish higher education sector with many strengths but scepticism about institutional capacity and government ambition.

Earlier this year 343 people in senior positions in Irish higher education and stakeholder groups were invited by Prospectus and BH Associates to complete a survey on the sector.  

Today we are publishing the results of our survey. 

Vocational Education and Training (VET) can play a much bigger role in Smart Specialisation Strategies than has so far been considered. This is because VET encompasses skill development as well as innovation diffusion and applied research – which together can have a more direct impact on sustainable economic growth, especially of less developed regions. VET also contributes to addressing the demographic challenges which Europe faces, responding to the needs for re-skilling and up-skilling through nonformal training and at different levels of formal VET.

The publication in July by the Minister for Education and Skills of proposals for legislation to reform the powers and functions of the Higher Education Authority has brought the regulation of our higher education system front and centre in discussions on higher education. At government and the wider political level, there appears to be a growing sense of frustration with the lack and/or weakness of powers of intervention in the sector to address perceived mismanagement or mis-governance. 

In the institutions, on the other hand, there is a growing concern that their autonomy to manage their internal, institutional affairs is increasingly being encroached on by a political system wedded to command and control. 

This seminar will discuss the issues, placing them within a broader and international context. 

Is it time we changed the conversation about higher education funding – a conversation that to date has been a dialogue of the deaf?

We need a new paradigm, elements of which could include the creation of a fully integrated further and higher education system with a comprehensive credit transfer system and clear pathways from programmes at different levels and between different institutions. This could serve to cool the demand for higher education and lead to students choosing programmes more compatible with their interests and aptitudes.

The newly formed Independent Commission on the College of the Future will work with partners to answer the question – what does the college of the future look like? The formation of the Commission is especially timely. There is increasing attention internationally on optimising the role of further and vocational education within the broader post-secondary education landscape – in response to changing employment opportunities and to provide greater choice for learners of all ages.  

The Commission will meet five times throughout the year and will be supported by an expert panel. The Commission will hold a range of roundtable and workshop events with a broad range of stakeholders across the UK throughout the year and will hold a number of public events. A final report will be published in Spring 2020.

Ellen Hazelkorn, Managing Partner, BH Associates, has been appointed to the Commission.

Populism as a political creed has, in recent years, burst onto a truly world stage. Our higher education institutions need to take the threat of populism seriously and deliberately and strategically set out to instil in students and graduates qualities of integrity, respect for knowledge, a capacity for analysis and informed engagement with politics and ideas.

The recent Higher Education Authority analysis of completion rates among undergraduate students offers many grounds for congratulation: overall the figures compare well with international benchmarks. But they raise some important issues, especially given relatively higher dropout rates in institutes of technology and in IT courses. In addition, Irish graduate literacy and numeracy rates have fallen significantly over the last 20 years.

Are there implications for the governance and organisation of the post-secondary system in Ireland?

Read the following articles

This seminar will discuss issues relating to the skills agenda and the impact of Ireland’s post secondary education system.  Among the issues to be explored will be how the further and higher education systems, as well as apprenticeships, could be better brought together as a coherent system of education and training. The New Zealand experience is instructive as the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) combines most of this area under one agency. The OECD experience will bring further international experience. The international experience will be complemented by the Irish experience, from the perspectives of SOLAS and EI.

There will be plenty of time for discussion.

Wednesday, 20 February, 2019. RIA, Dawson Street, Dublin.

The best way to defend our values and way of life is to take the battle to the populists and expose their chicanery wherever we see it, but all the while be attentive to the voices of people who feel left behind by what most of the rest of us see as “progress”. And come on our higher education leaders and academics, join the good fight.

This report understand universities’ civic mission as their commitment to bettering the local and regional communities of which they are part. A civic mission is an acknowledgement that universities have an obligation to act in this way, and civic engagement is the process by which this is achieved.

Universities’ potential for civic engagement in Wales is shaped by several factors: institutional origin and subsequent development, the Welsh, and UK, higher education
policy context and the globalisation of higher education and the economy at large.