DCU head hits out at 'out-of-date' O'Keeffe
- Published: 11 November 2008
By Shane Hickey
Tuesday November 11 2008
THE head of one of the country's largest universities has criticised the education minister's views on the third level sector as "out of date".
Today Minister Batt O'Keeffe will begin a series of meetings with schools' and teachers' representatives amid demands that drastic cuts across the education sector be reversed.
But the president of Dublin City University (DCU) Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski yesterday called for colleges and universities to be administered by a new and separate government department, away from Mr O'Keeffe's brief.
"There is a tension between the traditional expectation that universities will primarily teach students, and the more recent requirement for universities to underpin economic development and attract corporate research and development into Ireland . . . not to mention the role of universities as agencies of cultural regeneration and of tackling disadvantage and structural poverty," said Prof von Prondzynski.
"There is some evidence that politicians do not understand some of these national requirements, and treat universities as if they are slightly more advanced secondary schools.
"This is an unsustainable position and will cost Ireland dearly in terms of lost research and development opportunities. It also again raises the question as to whether the Department of Education and Science is the right home in government for higher education. The answer is, probably not."
He defended the amount of research carried out by universities, saying that knowledge-intensive industry would be where investment will go in the future.
"I think he (Batt O'Keeffe) has a view of how universities should operate which is fairly far removed from what my view would be. For example, he raised the issue of whether we do too much research," said Prof von Prondzynski.
"The wide remit of universities is not always understood," he said.
"We have a wide ambit of things that we do, and I don't think that is often understood and appreciated sufficiently by politicians, and I think that includes particularly the current Minister for Education," said Prof von Prondzynski.
Last night a spokesman for the minister said almost €2bn was being invested in the third-level sector this year, a one-third increase on 2004.
A programme for research in third-level institutions has invested €865m to date, aimed at strengthening research capabilities, he said.
- Shane Hickey
