With Irish universities failing to feature in the upper regions of a recent international league table, Prof Jim Browne charts a way forward for them to achieve excellence.
Irish universities did not feature in the upper regions of an international league table of universities, recently created by Shanghai Jiao Tong University. This has raised concerns about the quality of our universities and how we might deliver on our aspirations. Given the direct correlation between the supply of top-quality graduates and research emanating from the universities on the one hand, and economic and social development on the other, these concerns must be addressed.
Media commentators rightly point to the under-funding of Irish universities, which will result in a significant erosion of standards, if not tackled. The student/staff ratio starkly illustrates the problem. We are working with average ratios in excess of 20 to 1, while similar British universities operate on figures of 14 to 1 and lower. The funding crisis is clear and we await Government action.
What about league tables of Irish universities? Does it make sense to encourage, as a matter of public policy, the creation of such tables? There is no particular reason to expect any great differences among the universities. Some are larger and there might be some economies of scale in the provision of some services, but, in general, they have more in common than is perceived.
We share a common entry system and attract students with broadly similar levels of achievement; we work under the same funding regime; we are subject to similar external examiner systems and, where appropriate, professional accreditation; our staff work to the same contracts. The universities have established an Irish Universities Quality Board that has developed a sophisticated common quality-assurance model.
In short, the degree of collaboration between the Irish universities is high. Why not build on this?
What I have in mind is a form of competitive collaboration that builds critical mass. This is not an argument for a protected public-sector monopoly.
Before I outline the case for competitive collaboration let us first consider the possible outcome of a league-table approach. Assume we create a system where, for whatever reason, the universities in one or more regions were effectively downgraded. What impact would this have on the economic and social development of those regions? National policy correctly seeks balanced development and spatial strategy seeks to manage the growth of Dublin and its environs. Given the central importance of universities to development, it is essential that each region is well served.
An alternative to ranking Irish universities is to create critical mass by developing a network of collaborating universities, each of which aspires to excellence in particular and complementary areas that respond to the social, cultural and economic needs of its hinterland.
A university cannot effectively meet the needs of its various stakeholders unless it operates at the level of excellence on a global scale. If, for instance, NUI Galway is to support the further development of the medical-devices industry or the marine sector in Ireland, it must create and sustain excellent research and teaching programmes in these areas. Anything less is a disservice to industries that compete in a global market.
Public policy, in addition, should encourage the creation of a network of universities each of which develops excellence in selected and complementary areas that are appropriate to the needs of Irish society. Selection and complementarity are the key words here. Ireland cannot fund the creation of seven world-class universities, each of which seeks excellence in every discipline. It can create a network of collaborating universities, each of which is clear on its priority areas and how it will develop and sustain excellence in them.
The selection of complementary priority themes in line with the changing needs (short, medium and long term) of Irish society presents a tremendous and ongoing challenge to academics, managers and governance systems. Selection also implies reduced resources for some disciplines: a willingness to recognise that another university occupies the high ground in that discipline and to encourage colleagues and research students to collaborate with a partner university. And, of course, one has also to take account of evolution, competition and change: nobody has a claim on excellence; it is earned and sustained by focus and consistent achievement.
There is evidence that the process of Irish universities identifying their strengths, prioritising them and collaborating with partner institutions, including Institutes of Technology, is happening. In the late 1990s, the Programme for Research in Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI) made available significant competitive funds on the basis of each institution identifying its research priorities, showing that it had the academic wherewithal to deliver; also the ability to sustain the research effort after the PRTLI programme through competitive, peer-reviewed programmes, eg, those of the Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
In NUI Galway we have developed significant research institutes in areas such as biomedical engineering science, environmental change, marine science, human settlement and historical change, and innovation and structural change.
In the long run there is only one sustainable competitive advantage - excellence. Excellence is most likely to be achieved in a sectoral context, through the development of critical mass and a network of collaborating institutions, each of which has invested in complementary themes in which it is capable of achieving and sustaining excellence.
Prof Jim Browne, C Eng, MRIA, is registrar and deputy president at the National University of Ireland, Galway