Speech by Dr. Michael Mortell,
President, University College, Cork
at the Conferring of Arts Degrees on Wednesday, 24 July, 1996
 
A European Policy for UCC

University College, Cork, like any other university of its age and standing, plays a dual function in its society. It is at once a source of continuity and a source of change. Part of the role of a university is to foster innovation - change in how we do things and how we view things. But, at the same time, a university, because it is a focus for ongoing national development in the providing of education, becomes a symbol of permanence and of intellectual achievement. The continuity of the university is important, in part, because it enables us to measure the extent and the significance of change.

In the past 20 years or so, a major sign of change has been the increasing importance of our involvement in Europe. In recent years, this involvement has become a powerful force in teaching and research. A number of our new graduates symbolise this change: those who have obtained a BA in Language and Cultural Studies, the first cohort to do so, have each had the opportunity of spending a full year studying in one of our partner universities in Europe. Like graduates in European Studies, these students have been able to benefit from the direct experience of living and studying in another European country.

Experiences like these matter not only to the individual student, to whose development as a European citizen they contribute decisively. The development of degrees such as those in Language and Culture Studies and European Studies is an expression also of the strong sense that University College, Cork now has of its European identity and its European functions. Part of our vision of the future hinges on our development as an Irish-European institution. University College, Cork is one of the largest English speaking universities in Europe, but with a special sense of its own identity due to its growth and development in parallel with the emergence of Ireland as an independent state and of the Irish national university system. In recent years, the College's involvement in a range of European and other international programmes has encouraged it to project its sense of identity more coherently and more strongly. We conceive of ourselves as occupying a pivotal position between the European university system and that of other Atlantic countries, particularly those of the United States.

The study of Ireland's historical and contemporary role in Europe and of European ideas and institutions has formed part of the College's mission since its foundation. Because it is strongly rooted in its region and committed to providing firm educational and scientific foundations for contemporary intellectual, social and economic development, the College is well equipped to function as a significant contributor to debate and academic innovation in Europe.

The College has been active in ERASMUS since its inception in 1987. The wider policy of internationalisation, embracing the US, the Far East and the Middle East, as well as Europe, has conferred on it a distinctive international profile among Irish universities. It has active links with partner institutions in each of the countries of the European Union. Our involvement in ERASMUS has yielded a number of substantial benefits:

• student mobility has been achieved in a wide range of subject areas;
• large numbers of European students have been recruited to UCC, thus substantially raising its international profile;
• a number of joint European Master's degrees have been developed, notably in Food Studies, European Accounting and in Counselling Psychology;
• participating in the whole range of ERASMUS activities has enabled our academic departments here in University College, Cork to evaluate their programmes and their teaching according to the standards of other of other European institutions.

In a wide range of academic disciplines, the cultivation of an informed European perspective has emerged as an important means of promoting effective European integration.

The College's extensive experience of co-operation with other European institutions now fully informs its educational planning, notably with regard to the development of interdisciplinary programmes, the evaluation of its teaching, and the promotion of full academic recognition of all co-operative ventures. Highly active participation in European-oriented and European-funded research and developmental activities now forms a cardinal part of the College's strategic thinking.

The transition to the European Union's new SOCRATES programmes, a single integrated programme spanning all levels of education in Europe which comes into effect on 1 July 1997, has occasioned a major review of policy at departmental and institutional levels, with the result that renewed emphasis is being placed on academic innovation.

The College's participation in SOCRATES is planned on the basis of the consolidation and expansion of core areas of involvement in ERASMUS since 1987, and the extension of European partner networks to a range of new subjects areas. This programme activity will include, but will also extend beyond, student exchanges. Strategic use will be made of opportunities for staff exchanges as a means of exploiting specialised expertise to be found in partner institutions. Intensive international study programmes will be used as a means of providing effective teaching in specialised skills. The opportunity of collaboration in curriculum development will be used as a means of building a European dimension into the core of academic programmes.

In the development of its European contacts under SOCRATES, one of the College's main objectives will be to strengthen its links with partner institutions so that shared objectives will help to guarantee the quality of future joint initiatives. It envisages the extension of joint interdisciplinary programmes beyond the initial level, where European co-operation has already served as a catalyst for recent developments, so as to increase the opportunities for postgraduate study with a strong European dimension.

Our sense of our identity as an Irish-European institution is important to our future development in a number of ways. It contributes both to our academic growth and to our evolving policy of internationalisation. SOCRATES will provide us with a variety of outlets for academic development and innovation on the basis of our involvement with partner-universities which possess matching or complimentary strengths. For students and graduates of the College, the impact of what is now termed the "Europeanisation" of university study is increasingly likely to have a bearing on their mobility as workers within the European Union.

The budget that the European Commission has allocated to the SOCRATES programme is not likely to be adequate to the level of activity envisaged by University College, Cork and other institutions with a strong European commitment. Our students who have travelled to European institutions will themselves know the level of support is not high. I call upon our ministers, in this period of Ireland's presidency of the European Union, to press for agreement to increase funding for areas of academic and educational development that will be crucial to Europe's future economic, social and cultural well-being. University College, Cork is committed to European partnership - for the sake of our present and our future students and for the sake of fostering European integration and development. We look to the Commission to provide support that truly matches the quality of our commitment and our initiative.