Tom Clonan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

This amendment, which is to section 61 on the strategic development plan of higher education institutions, would have the effect of changing the wording from "students or the students' unions of the institution" to "students and the students' unions of the institution".We propose that it not be one or the other but both to ensure the fullest range of feedback to a governing body or chief executive on strategic development.

To put the amendment in context, I echo the sentiments expressed by Senator Dolan about the specific regional nature of universities. For example, we had a discussion this morning at committee about the decision of the Department to take the testimony of survivors of mother and baby homes and lodge that testimony in the National Archives of Ireland in the national commemoration centre. That is an example of a case where rather than outsourcing such investigations, had one been undertaken, to a senior counsel, we have teams of trained investigators in all of our universities and technological universities that can carry out this type of social research. That kind of work needs to be explicitly articulated in the strategic plan. If you exclude a students' union or students then, potentially, you debar a whole tier of students, for example postgraduate and postdoctoral students, who might have a view in this area and see ways where the university might tailor its strategic plan to the contribution to knowledge in areas other than the natural sciences or technology.

I reiterate that I do not denigrate those areas of investigation. I wish to say that very often, human sciences and the arts are overlooked because of the overarching economic imperatives of the day or whatever. Research students, postdoctoral students and the whole lot are part of a community of people who can very actively feed back to management ways to develop a strategic plan. It would not be good if we did not have their voices, plus the traditionally provocative voices of the students' unions, which in the context of a university is a good thing and necessary for the vibrancy of the university. So it is for those reasons that my colleagues and I have tabled our amendment to include both. It is not an either-or situation but a case of "and".