Grace O'Sullivan (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

In the previous debate on the Bill, the Minister of State did not quite answer my question on how many of the existing institutes of technology met the eligibility criteria specified in section 28. It is my view and that of many senior academic staff in universities who I consulted in recent weeks that all of the institutes already do so or could do so with almost no time, effort or investment. The criteria are not the tough test that the Minister of State has claimed.The 2012 criteria have been watered down as has the supposed gold standard of the 1997 Act. They are no longer a tough test that ensures the institutions have earned the requisite academic maturity to be called a university and it is not just me saying so. I have consulted senior academics and staff of existing Irish universities who have told me that the criteria constitute a watering down of the 2012 standards. This Bill creates a new definition for a research student and is a definition that no-one in higher education recognises. This amendment seeks to return the Bill to the spirit of the 2012 standard, a reasonable but demanding test of the academic maturity of an institution seeking to use the designation of a university. As things stand, the Bill would give institutions that have little or no PhD activity the opportunity to claim a research mandate when they have no right to do so. This provision is the single most serious threat to the new technological university designation.

These amendments also address the watering down of existing criteria. The Bill allows all of the institutes of technology to meet the staff criteria by excluding well over half of their staff from assessment. For example: 57% of the teaching staff at the Institute of Technology, Tallaght, are excluded from this calculation; 57% of the teaching staff at the Letterkenny Institute of Technology; 38% of the teaching staff at the Waterford Institute of Technology; and 33% of the teaching staff at the Dublin Institute of Technology. Only 16% of the lecturers in the Institute of Technology, Tralee, have a PhD and only 17% of the Letterkenny Institute of Technology yet they are deemed eligible to call them universities according to the criteria. That begs the following question. Who are they when the Minister of State knows that all institutes of technology already easily meet the criteria? I know that she does not wish to hear this but she must return to the 2012 standards in order to protect our universities, graduates and the economy. This set of amendments are by far the most important ones that I have ever put forward. I cannot give way on this matter as it goes to the very heart of the purpose and functions of the Bill.

Recently, the Project Ireland 2040 policy was published, which includes plans for the third level sector across Ireland. In the next few years the Minister of State's Government plans to spend €2.2 billion on higher education, with 90% of it going to existing universities. Such a situation does not bode well for the future of these new institutions. Combined with the concerns that I have highlighted in these amendments, there is little to dissuade the idea that the technological universities are an expensive rebranding exercise. I care far too passionately about the future of education and the prosperity of our regions to allow this to happen. That is why I shall push my amendments to a vote.