Mr. Tony Donohoe:

Most of the questions were not directed into my area of competence. The Chairman presented a compelling portrait of the Bolton Street apprentice. Without getting into the nitty-gritty of the model proposed, it offers the potential to turn that into reality. We would appreciate any fair wind the committee can give it by interrogating, exploring and discussing the model. With regard to democratic representation and without wishing to sound anti-democratic, I urge a word of caution and point out that in most modern universities there are tighter competency-based structures. Our submission refers to the Danish model. The suggestion of 20 members for the governing body is too large for efficient decision-making. We suggest between 11 and 15 because it is important the governing body can manage and is not a collection of representative interests.

That is not its function. The structure should exist for the academy to reach out to the town but the governing body is not the place, nor is the academic council, which should really sit as an advisory body and have competence in the areas where it works, such as quality assurance, academic programmes, etc.