Seanad debates

Wednesday, 12 November 2014

Education (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2014: Fifth Stage

 

1:10 pm

Photo of Averil PowerAveril Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Thank you, a Leas-Chathaoirligh. I take this opportunity to reiterate, on behalf of the Fianna Fáil group, why we are opposing this Bill. As I pointed out in the course of the debate, 90% of the Bill relates to the putting in place of an extraordinary new procedure for the benefit of the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, whereby that institution, which is not entitled to call itself a university within this State because it does not satisfy the relevant criteria, may market itself abroad as a university. That leaves us with a bizarre situation in which foreign students will be enticed to study there thinking it is a university when it is, under the Irish system of classification, a college.

As I emphasised, I have no difficulties with the educational standard of the medical qualifications provided by the RCSI. However, what is proposed here represents a huge departure in our system of third level education. The institutes of technology that have been jumping through hoops for a long time to secure university status are being told they must continue on that uncertain path while another institution is allowed to move ahead. The IoTs face exactly the same difficulties as the RCSI in marketing their qualifications abroad. To give just two examples, Dublin Institute of Technology and Waterford Institute of Technology provide qualifications on a par with, if not better than, those offered by many of those institutions in the United Kingdom, for instance, which can call themselves universities. It is unacceptable to facilitate one institution in this State at the expense of others and without addressing the broader issues of internationalisation and ensuring all our third level institutions can compete abroad and attract their fair share of foreign students.

We would like to work with the Minister on this issue, but the Bill before us today is absolutely the wrong way of approaching it. It is for this reason, notwithstanding our support for the provisions in the Bill regarding grants for post leaving certificate students and transparency in the provision of educational data, that we are opposing the legislation. The welcome provisions it contains are a very minor part of the Bill when stood beside the strange and dubious departure therein of allowing the RCSI to use the term "university" abroad when it does not qualify to do so here. I have put forward a better solution whereby the RCSI would be permitted to call itself a medical university both at home and abroad. That fine institution will never reach university status under the definition applied in this State because it includes only one discipline and does not have the scale required. The solution I am proposing would allow it to use the same title at home as it does abroad, thereby addressing the issue the Minister is seeking to address in a sensible way and without throwing our entire classification system in the air.

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