Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)

Provisions to dissolve the National University of Ireland will be contained in the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Bill, included in the legislative programme. Recently, the Government approved the general scheme of the Bill and it is hoped that it will be published before the summer recess.

Several factors were taken into consideration in deciding to dissolve the National University of Ireland, NUI. Since 1997, the NUI has not been a federal university in any real sense. All significant powers ordinarily associated with a university are directly assigned to the four constituent universities of the NUI. They make awards themselves and have their own quality assurance procedures that are externally reviewed not by the NUI, but by the Irish Universities Quality Board. While the NUI senate provides a forum for discussion, on most major issues the universities make the decisions. Awards of the four constituent universities may continue to be titled NUI awards and I have commenced discussions with the constituent universities about an appropriate mechanism to ensure the protection of the national and international reputation of the NUI degree.

The NUI performs a wider range of functions for its recognised colleges, including the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the National College of Art and Design, the Institute of Public Administration, the Shannon College of Hotel Management and the Milltown Institute. This includes making awards and acting as an external quality assurance agent. In the context of the establishment of the new qualifications and quality assurance agency, I consider that the arrangement whereby such a separate awarding and quality assurance framework is maintained by the NUI for a small number of recognised colleges is not sustainable. When the awarding and quality assurance functions are removed, it is difficult to support the continuation of the NUI to carry out its remaining functions, the bulk of which would most likely be performed by the constituent universities, as they are by non-NUI universities.

Most of the five recognised colleges of the NUI have already been exploring possible future options for award making, and when the dissolution is completed these colleges will need to enter new awarding arrangements. The recognised colleges could enter a quality assurance and award making relationship with the new qualifications and quality assurance agency or with an existing university. The RCSI is seeking to have its statutory degree-awarding powers commenced and I am moving to have an appropriate review process put in place in this regard. The international reputation of Irish education must be based on the quality of teaching and research as well as the wider experience offered to international students. I do not believe the dissolution of the NUI will have any adverse effect in this regard.

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