In the teeth of the last economic crash, the National University of Ireland (NUI) was targeted for abolition as part of a slew of Government spending cuts.
“There was a newspaper profile at the time which stated that I’d be the last and most short-lived chancellor,” laughs Dr Maurice Manning, who had been just been elected to the office in 2009.
“We were called into the Department [of Education] and these grim undertakers told us they were about to abolish us and to start packing our bags – but it turned out there was strong support for us within the Cabinet.”
Almost 15 years later, Dr Manning has announced that he is hanging up the ceremonial gown for the last time and stepping down as chancellor of the NUI.
The move will trigger an election later this year for his successor in which more than a quarter of a million graduates of its constituent universities (UCD, UCC, Maynooth University and University of Galway) and other colleges will be entitled to vote. Candidates need only be nominated by two NUI graduates.
The NUI, which has its central offices on Merrion Square, is in some ways a relic of history, Manning concedes.
It was established as a governing authority in 1908 for poorly-funded and much smaller universities who were educating Ireland’s elite.
Éamon de Valera, who was chancellor for more than 50 years, helped enhance its status as a national institution. He was succeeded by economist TK Whitaker and former taoiseach Garret FitzGerald.
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But the NUI’s constituent universities are now far bigger and have much more autonomy. So, why does it still exist?
Manning says it has survived, simply, because the universities value its role in providing services, overseeing quality and promoting areas of research in Irish universities.
“Garret FitzGerald always said when he was chancellor that if the individual universities don’t find the NUI useful, then it shouldn’t exist. The fact is that it has expanded since ... the RCSI, the Institute of Public Administration and others,” he says.
“They see it to their advantage. It is particularly patron to some of the forgotten subjects: the Classics, Latin, early Irish history, which were dominant in the NUI’s early years. They still find a warm welcome here and we do a lot to promote them through research, scholarship and funding.”
He points out that the NUI costs the State little – about €10,000 a year directly – given that it is mostly funded by universities, who would need to replicate its services if it was closed.
It is – for now – the end of this chapter of public life for Manning (80), who is a former Fine Gael TD, senator and widely admired across the political divide. The former politics lecturer at UCD also served as president of the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission, where there were run-ins with the Department of Justice who, he says, tried to “grind them down”.
In his more recent role as chancellor, Manning has attended countless graduation ceremonies and witnessed the continued growth of higher education in Ireland.
It has, he says, been a hugely positive experience and he is full of praise for the quality of graduates emerging from Irish universities.
“I think we have the brightest, best educated, best equipped generation of young people ...
“When I was an undergraduate, universities were small and limited; there hadn’t been any exposure to outside influence, largely because of poverty and of the war, all of that. When people like myself went abroad, we found we had a struggle because we hadn’t been all that well prepared.
“But today’s young graduates can walk in anywhere in the world. They’ve had a world class education, they have great confidence and great competence ... I’m utterly positive and optimistic. I think Irish higher education is in a great place. Yes, it has problems, but it’s in a great place.”
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