Speech by Dr Michael P. Mortell,
President, The National University of Ireland, Cork
at the Conferring of Degrees and Diplomas in the Faculty of Arts,
Wednesday, 23 July, 1997 at 3.30 p.m.
 
Arts
The New University and the Future

The Universities Act, 1997 put in place the National University of Ireland, Cork. We are now a University within the federal structure of the National University of Ireland, rather than a Constituent College.

Built in to the legislation are certain basic rights which universities have enjoyed since time immemorial - and which are now explicitly provided for.

Principal among these is the principle of academic freedom. This essentially means that a staff member of the University has the right to study and research whatever topic he or she pleases, and has the right to speak out on issues, within the law of the land, without fear of retribution from within the University.

This right carries with it certain responsibilities. If you have the right to study and research in any area, you have the duty to study and research in some area. If you have the right to speak out, you also have the duty to properly inform yourself before you speak out. Academic freedom certainly does not give the right to do nothing, or to have an uninformed view on everything.

Another critical part of the legislation says that University shall be entitled to regulate its affairs in accordance with its independent ethos and traditional principles of academic freedom.

This means that the University is charged with the responsibility of deciding on the subjects to be taught, who shall teach them and how they shall be taught. It also recognises that the experts are the members of the academic staff and that in matters of an academic nature the view of the Academic Council holds sway.

A new function specifically inserted into the legislation is the requirement for instituting procedures for Quality Assurance. The standards of the degree programme have traditionally been insured by means of external examiners, ie, examiners coming from outside this University to monitor and comment on the standards here. This will continue. In addition we will have quality assurance for teaching and examining, research, for quality of degrees and for all the support services.

A particular feature, which is new, is that there must be student involvement in the quality assurance procedure.

So while the legislation confirms the traditional rights of academia, it updates the explicit responsibilities and puts then into the modern context of democracy and transparency. Students are members of the University, students are the customers; there must be a means of hearing their voice.

The State explicitly requires quality assurance, and it is easy to see why, apart from the intrinsic merit.

We are in an era of mass university education. We have 10,500 students in this University; 40 years ago it was barely over 1,000. There are about 60,000 students amount all the universities today, and the recurrent funding put in by the State is of the order of £200 million. The State now also pays the fees of the students. So we are talking about large sums of public money. The State has the obligation to ensure that the money is well spent. A quality assurance procedure is one element in ensuring value for money.

What are the challenges ahead of us? There has been, and will continue to be for some time more, a significant increase in the numbers going to university. The increase from now on will involve a wider mix of students from different age groups and from different social backgrounds.

Over 15% of students graduating in Arts this week are mature students - and this proportion will continue to increase. This University has 900 mature applicants for the places available.

While the proportion of students from middle income backgrounds has increased significantly and accounts for the growth in student numbers, the proportion from under-privileged has not increased to the same extent. We must increase the opportunities here, if only to tap into all the potential of the people.

As more students come to University, the question of quality will arise. Each University in the State will compete very strongly for the highest quality students. They will compete on the basis of the perceived appeal of courses offered, on the facilities available, on the image that the particular institution projects.

Part of this image will be the quality of staff, the quality of degree and the services available to the student. You can only attract high quality staff in a competitive market if the facilities, particularly the research facilities, are available. And this is a problem.

The state has traditionally been the provider of facilities. I cannot see, with mass third level education, how the state can continue to fund all institutions to an international level and pay student fees as well. The universities will have to generate more funding - perhaps from the graduates who are the main beneficiaries -, the staff will have to be more entrepreneurial in finding ways of supporting their research. And I believe that, in due course, the payment of fees by students will return in some guise.

There will be a research exercise through which the universities will be rated. This will have enormous consequences for the ability to fund and attract top class staff. It could separate out the institutions into different classes - those doing significant research and those not, with profound consequences.

The universities are now recognised as being central to the economic well being of the country. But that will not protect their total funding base. It will more than likely lead to a more focused funding mechanism.

Overall the universities in Ireland will be in a more competitive market place. They will compete among themselves for top quality students, top quality staff, for resources - from government and from private sources. They will also complete internationally: to keep their best students, to attract high quality staff, and be part of an international research context. The key issue will always be funding.

Students will be more discriminating and more vocal about their requirements as will business and employers. Government will be less directly intrusive but will steer priorities through the funding mechanism. Government will also expect to assure the quality of learning, efficiency of output and the relevance of the educational process to employment and life-long learning.

It is a daunting future, but in my view this University is well placed to successfully compete and advance in the years ahead. It will take energy and drive from all members of our staff.