THE Universities Bill, published in July, contains eight sections which, between them, propose to hand over effective de facto control of key aspects of our universities to the Government appointed Higher Education Authority (HEA), the legislative description of which is "An tUdaras".
Given the dependence of our universities on public funds, no one would argue that they should not be reasonably accountable for their use of these resources. Moreover, the State has an interest in ensuring that academic standards are maintained, although in our universities this is already effectively monitored through a system of external examiners.
But in pursuing these objectives the State has hitherto had regard to the need to ensure that the autonomy of the universities is pre served. For the past 25 years accountability has been secured through An tUdaras, which has been seen as a buffer between the State and higher education institutions, allocating public funds to our universities and third level colleges.
Under the 1971 Higher Education Bill this body has the function of recommending to the Minister for Education the amounts of current and capital funding to be provided to institutions of higher education, having regard to their accommodation capacity for students and the maintenance of a reasonable balance in the distribution of students between institutions.
Then, when the Minister, having considered its recommendations, provides An tUdaras with whatever funds the Government decides to allocate to higher education, that body makes payments to each institution "in such manner and subject to such conditions as An tUdaras thinks fit".
It has to be said that for some time there has been growing concern, especially in the universities, at what they have seen as an increased intrusiveness of An tUdaras into their affairs.
These fears have been intensified by the attempts in Britain and the United States at a simplistic quantification of research and teaching that has done damage to the higher education system in those countries. An example of this phenomenon has been crude attempts in the US in particular to evaluate research work in terms of the number of papers produced and presented.
This has led to a quantitative research rat race which has had the effect of diverting many academics away from serious longer term research in order to preserve their tenure or to secure promotion on the basis of these faulty criteria.
Given the power already being wielded by An tUdaras through its wide interpretation of existing legislation, I don't think anyone in our third level sector had expected that it would succeed in persuading a Government to extend its powers in the dramatic way that is now proposed in this Universities Bill.
Let me list some of the new controls that it is now proposed to impose on our universities:
In future each university, in addition to what it is already providing to An tUdaras - for none of that body's existing powers is being repealed - is to be required to present a strategic development plan to the HEA and the Minister, which An tUdaras is to review at intervals.
Second, each university is also to make an annual report to An tUdaras and the Minister in a form determined by An tUdaras".
Third, each university must also make a further report"in a form determined by An tUdaras .... containing detailed and evaluative material on the performance of the university for such period determined by An tUdaras, being not less than three years".
Fourth, and here we come to the real meat of this Bill, the universities will no longer be fully free to determine how their budgets are to be spent for it is proposed to give An tUdaras the power to issue "guidelines" as to "the proportion of its budget to be applied to the different activities of each university".
A fifth requirement, designed to eliminate any remaining shred of university autonomy, is that the universities must furnish each year to An tUdaras, in a manner and form to be determined by it, their staffing structure by grade, remuneration, and number of employees. If An tUdaras is dissatisfied with these returns it is to be given power to send someone in with the power to examine the books of the university.
But the most disturbing feature of this Section of the Bill is that An tUdaras is to be given the power itself to issue "guidelines to all or any of the universities on any matter relating to the number and grades of employees".
If a university "contravenes or fails to comply with a requirement" of An tUdaras under any of the headings referred to in the preceding paragraphs, that body - having considered any excuses the university has to offer - may report the matter to the Minister, who shall publish any such report in Irish Oifigiuil.
However in deciding whether to submit to An tUdaras's "guidelines" as to the allocation of its budget between different faculties and as to the numbers, grading, and allocation of staff, each university would, of course, have to take account not only of the threat of being reported to the Minister and publicly arraigned, it would also have to bear in mind that An tUdaras will, in its discretion, be allocating funds to it in the following year.
Against that background there is a real danger that universities might be intimidated into accepting and implementing ill judged Udaras guidelines because of fear of what might happen to their grant in subsequent years if they defy An tUdaras.
Finally, universities will no longer be able to borrow without the consent of the Ministers for Education and Finance, and then only on such conditions as An tUdaras may determine.
How has our Oireachtas come to be presented with such an extraordinarily authoritarian, indeed Thatcherite, Bill - a measure profoundly contrary to, and openly dismissive of our highly successful university system?
For, whatever defects this system may have, it has given us for 90 years a quality of university education that is comparable with the best in northern Europe - monitored and assured as it has been through the external examiner system - and which has been provided at a vastly lower cost than anywhere else in this part of the world.
The impetus for this proposed and quite dramatic extension of the HEA's powers has almost certainly been bureaucratic rather than political. It may well be the case, indeed, that the full implications for university autonomy of these proposals have not been grasped at political level.
But with an election due within the next year, this is surely not the moment for the Government to allow pressures from within the administrative system to embroil it in a quite unnecessary parliamentary row which could probably be avoided by deleting the two discriminatory provisions against the NUI universities referred to in yesterday's article and the two unacceptable provisions for An tUdaras guidelines.
Members of the Government will readily recall how the Fianna Fail minority government lost power in 1989, forcing that party into its first ever Coalition - simply because it succumbed to bureaucratic pressures against compensation for people who had been inadvertently infected with AIDS by our National Blood Transfusion Service Board.
Having, unsuccessfully, warned the then Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, privately, just six weeks before the Dail was dissolved, against falling into that particular bureaucratic trap, I feel I owe it to the present Government to point out the dangers of the course it has been led into pursuing in relation to our higher education sector. Both of these cases seem to involve a happy coincidence between the right course of action in the public interest and in the political interest of the Government.
And that is a coincidence that should never be ignored.