[Article] Minister advised to privatise a number of unis

sceptre

From the IT

The Government has been advised by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to bring in legislation to enable some universities to leave the State sector and become private institutions.

The HEA, which advises the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, on higher education, said if Ireland wanted to compete on the world stage it needed to offer colleges an opportunity to operate privately, like US institutions such as Harvard and Yale.

[...]

The HEA said these would be not-for-profit institutions which would focus solely on higher education, research and development and service to the community.

If privatised, they would provide services to the State on a contract basis "along the lines of some of the leading research-based universities in the US and elsewhere".

[...]

The HEA also returned to the controversial area of fees and suggested that "active consideration should continue to be given to the individual's contribution to the cost of his or her higher education".

The submission said fees, student loans or a graduate tax should be introduced only on a "carefully planned basis".

[...]

The whole article is worth a read. I know that colleges like UCC and UL have been chomping at the bit with a view to going private. Chances are that any college with an extensive MBA programme would at least consider the idea.

Personally I'm rather against the idea, at least until I hear strong arguments in favour. Judging from the quotes in the article, the main reason the HEA is recommending this is because private = better. Which is rather a simplistic argument and one I'm not in favour of (mostly because in isolation it's a dumb idea) as I've explained in detail in other posts. There is the argument that they would at least be able to leave behind the current situation of being funded at the whim of government subsidisation but that argument largely succeeds or fails in people's minds depending on what they think of whatever the government of the time is and what it stands for (which in this case is largely privatisation for the sake of privatisation to be honest).

It would certainly mean even more emphasis on purely vocational courses. Keeping in mind that I'm essentially on my second "vocational"[1] degree (Law and accounting in the past, currently computer systems) I'm in as good a position as anyone else to criticise the idea of degrees that emphasise the core elements of the curriculum as opposed to any form of general learning (those "unnecessary and stupid" modules people seem to so often complain about). I'm rather against the idea of colleges being pressured to produce shorter degrees with a lack of any emphasis on courses outside the very core elements (if you're doing business, I'm referring to the basic computer modules you have, if you're doing law I'm thinking of the history modules you may take, for emgineers and information students, I'm thinking of the laughable business modules thaey foist upon you). This is a side issue incidentally, I'm just slightly worried that the more focussed on the income and expenditure sheet the colleges get, the more tempted they may become to train people in an extremely focussed way to the absence of any actual education.

I'm rather interested in people's views on the main point.


My terminology mightn't be the accepted term but I'd regard it as defensible. A course in Law and accounting, essentially geared to produce solicitors, accountants and barristers is just as much a vocational course as a diploma in carpentry or montessori teaching as opposed to a course in arts or business studies

Annasopra

Yes

I agree that privatisation is not necessarily good for the education sector

I went to the National College of Ireland (now in the IFSC, formerly the National College of Industrial Relations in Ranelagh)

This college is private in that it is a company/ non profit insitution, however government agreement meant that free fees applied in NCI and the government also gave money towards the new IFSC campus.

The mission of the college is "Access, Opportunity and excellence" yet I have been there for 6 years (I'm now doing a part time course there) and the culture of the college comes accross as corporate and as money grabbing

I agree that in a lot of senses academia needs to be financially independent but I cannot see privatisation being good in the long run

simu

if Ireland wanted to compete on the world stage it needed to offer colleges an opportunity to operate privately, like US institutions such as Harvard and Yale.

Harvard, Yale and many other less well-known American unis have capital worth billions and receive enormous sums of money every year in donations. It would not be easy to set up a similar system in Ireland as circumstances and the historical background are quite different.

I also share Sceptre's fears of curricula that are narrow and trying to cater directly to the needs of industry. Unis should give students a broad education in the arts or the sciences or whatever area that will stay with them for the rest of their lives - companies can well afford to spend time training the people they recruit. Even where courses are very industry or business-oriented, the graduates they produce need to be trained to adapt to the particular company they're recruited by, anyway.

I've been to UCC and I've been horrified by the mind set of certain members of the business depts there - the message to students is "How to scréw ppl for maximum profit". Maybe it's old-fashioned to say so but off all things, a uni is one place that should allow ppl to escape the increasing commercialisation of our society and see the wider picture.