The third-level sector needs stronger overall planning and closer supervision by State agencies, according to a new report commissioned by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey. Seán Flynn, Education Editor, reports.
The report, which has still to be published, says courses provided by each college should be regularly reviewed to ensure they meet national economic and social priorities.
It also calls for the establishment of a new national forum, made up of various Government Departments, business interests and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to give the colleges a better insight into "industry . . . and their needs".
The report was prepared by the former DCU president, Dr Danny O'Hare, for the HEA. Last year, Mr Dempsey commissioned the report after his Department refused to sanction a number of art and humanities courses at two of the 14 institutes of technology. The decision provoked an angry response from some within the institutes.
The view within Government is that the institutes should focus on courses which help provide graduates for industry.
Concern has been growing in some Government Departments that the universities and the ITs are not sufficiently responsive to the needs of the economy, industry and students. The O'Hare report could herald a major change in direction for both the ITs and the seven universities. It is critical of the lack of dialogue between the colleges and the HEA and the lack of a "systematic approaches to identifying problems and moving on to address them".
The report says colleges must not be allowed unrestricted freedom when it comes to offering degree and other courses.
Instead, it argues that each course should be reviewed by the HEA to ensure it meets national economic or social needs. The various programmes on offer by the colleges should also meet objectives set out in their own strategic plans.
The report says an "entirely centrally-planned approach" for the third-level sector would not work.
Instead, it makes a case for what one academic called "a healthy level of State interference".
Dr O'Hare is an influential and senior figure in the academic community. He was chairman of the Government Task Force on Science and is chairman of the Information Society Commission.
The new forum would bring together the Department of Education and Science, the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the HEA, the Skills Expert Group and representatives from FAS, IBEC, ICTU and other stakeholders to "identify national needs".
Its purpose would be to identify areas of "large scale national need", such as a shortage of graduates in the health or technology areas.
It would, the report says, provide an opportunity for national concerns - economic, social and cultural - to be communicated to the colleges. It would also provide a forum for discussion on issues like co-operation between colleges, the level of third-level participation in each region and the overall gender balance among students. While tbe proposals made in the report are novel in an Irish context, they are based on similar systems in the Netherlands, Finland and the US.