UNIVERSITY PRESIDENTS have reacted angrily to cuts in a €97 million access and innovation programme demanded yesterday by the Department of Education.
The department has ordered a spending "pause" in the Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF). Colleges have been ordered not to enter into new SIF contracts.
Ned Costello, chief executive officer of the Irish Universities Association, described the move as "extremely demoralising".
The pause means that a series of much-heralded initiatives are now in jeopardy, including a joint initiative among third-level colleges - the Dublin Region Higher Education Alliance - which was awarded €44 million to reform undergraduate teaching and boost international student recruitment.
One of the main aims of the overall SIF fund is to widen access for under-represented socio-economic groups and for students with a disability entering higher education, particularly into the high-points programmes.
Yesterday, Higher Education Authority chief executive Tom Boland told colleges: "We have been informed by the Department of Education that resources for SIF Cycle II will not be available in 2009 at the levels we had initially anticipated."
While precise figures would be known in the budget, Mr Boland said he had been advised by the department that no further SIF contracts should be initiated.
The SIF had been championed by the Government itself as a fund which would boost teaching standards and the management capacity of colleges. Under the SIF, colleges can be "rewarded'' for modernisation measures.
The cutback in funding has echoes of a hugely controversial decision five years ago when a pause was announced in research funding. This was later rescinded after intense lobbying by university presidents.
Last night, Mr Costello said the latest move was a very worrying development. "The SIF was seen as ushering in a new era in Irish higher education - it promised to give a spectacular boost to efforts of individual institutions to broaden access to higher education.
"It is also the keystone of a major collaborative drive to enhance teaching and learning and improve services. In response to Government priorities, universities have fully committed to working together to broaden access and modernise. Now the tools to achieve this are being taken away."
He said the colleges have "already significantly geared up to deliver these projects", committing significant resources.
"The people are in place, but now we are being told that the rug is being pulled from under them. These projects cannot simply be turned on and off at will. If they stall now, the investment in them to date will be lost."
