Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chair for the invitation, which we appreciate. I am pleased to present the draft Ministerial order entitled Universities Act 1997 (Section 54(3)) (University Authorisation) Order 2019, to the Joint Committee on Education and Skills, with a view to its approval by resolution of each House of the Oireachtas. This order will, if approved, authorise the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to use in respect of itself, the description "university" in the State and to style itself accordingly. Having visited the RCSI on a number of occasions and engaged with the staff and students there, and having consulted with the Higher Education Authority and the Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority of Ireland, I am aware of the RCSI’s unique contribution to medical and health sciences education, across a wide number of disciplines, and its ongoing positive contributions to the higher education system, to the Irish health system, and indeed to wider Irish society.

For some 235 years now, the RCSI has played a key role in Irish surgical and medical education in this country. It is a highly progressive institution incorporating state-of-the-art technology and employing teaching methods of the highest quality and excellence. As well as its Irish undergraduates, students from over 40 countries receive their medical education at the RCSI, and in associated training hospitals in disciplines such as surgery, medicine, nursing, radiology, pharmacology, anaesthesiology, physiotherapy and dentistry.

The RCSI is held in high international regard. Nationally it is one of a limited number of higher Education Institutions, all of them universities, which hold designated awarding powers to a level 10 doctoral degree under the National Framework of Qualifications. That said, the title of “university” is highly prized and rightly so. Its integrity, in the context of safeguarding the reputation for excellence that attaches to the Irish higher education system, must be protected. As such, this authorisation is neither easily obtained nor lightly granted. In 2015 the RCSI obtained permission to describe itself as a university outside the State in certain prescribed circumstances. The draft order before the committee today will, if passed by resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas, enable the use of the university description in the State also.

In July this year, with thanks to this committee's informed assistance and support, I piloted the then Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) (Amendment) Bill 2019 through its legislative passage, including its amendment of the Universities Act 1997. Now duly enacted this legislation provides for the first time a legal process whereby an education provider that does not derive their primary income from the Exchequer may seek authorisation from the Minister for Education and Skills to describe itself as a university. This legislative process has provided an equitable pathway for eligible educational providers such as the RCSI to seek to so describe themselves - but only subject to compliance with an extensive set of rigorous conditions. These conditions are modelled in large measure on those in the Technological Universities Act 2018. They encompass requirements relating to an educational provider’s research record, scope of programme provision and intensity, student access, staff qualifications, staff and student opportunities, governance and financial capability, as well as its wider collaborative international, professional, stakeholder and community links, and its contribution to the promotion of the economic, cultural, social and scientific development of the State.

The RCSI is the first educational provider to apply under the new legislative provision and this application has been rigorously scrutinised and examined. I have been advised by both the Higher Education Authority and Qualifications and Quality Assurance Authority of Ireland in considering this application. I am satisfied that the RCSI complies with the conditions prescribed in the Universities Act 1997 as amended. As such, I am proposing to grant the RCSI the first university authorisation order in the State. I hereby commend the draft order to the committee seeking its approval.