Observers were hoping for breaking news about third-level access programmes in the Republic. Instead, conference-goers in Dublin last week heard how anti-discrimination laws in the North have helped open up the education system.
The workshop was entitled Promoting and Achieving an Inclusive Higher Education Sector, and most of us hoped a University of Ulster professor, Bob Osborne, would spill the beans on the evaluation of third-level access programmes he has been undertaking for the Higher Education Authority (HEA). In the event, we were to be disappointed. The HEA had previously indicated his report would be launched in June.
Instead, Osborne discussed the stringent legislation that underpins equality of opportunity in Northern Ireland and how it makes for a more inclusive higher education system. The Fair Employment and Fair Treatment Order, for example, was extended to students in 1998. Students can now bring cases against universities if they believe they have been discriminated against.
The workshop was part of an international conference on third-level education, which was held in Dublin Castle. A Vision of Higher Education: Challenges for the Millennium examined the issues involved in increasing access to higher education by non-traditional groups.
In her address to the conference, Maureen Gaffney, chair of the National Economic and Social Forum, argued in favour of Irish universities' taking a more proactive role to ensure equal access to citizens disadvantaged by socio-economic circumstances, disability, race, ethnic identity and age.
Universities are major powerbrokers in society and constitute part of the intellectual and cultural capital of a nation, she told the conference. Every citizen should have access to that capital.
The commitment of publicly funded universities to equality, equity and life-long learning should be carefully monitored, both internally and externally, she said.
The funding by the State of such institutions should be dependent on their meeting appropriate targets in relation to these objectives, Gaffney suggested.
"Moreover," she added, "I believe strongly that the universities should be making this argument." Quality is set to be come a key word at third level. In the future, students will be shopping around for a university, she says. "It will not be so much `Where can I do law/medicine/business studies?', but rather, `Which university will offer me the quality of teaching, graduate opportunities, quality of university life and personal development?' "
Organisations which continue to be structured by a culture of tradition, precedent, rigid demarcation and an exaggerated view of their own uniqueness are in danger of having changes forced upon them, she noted.
"For the universities, there remain serious challenges to be met in relation to equity/equality issues, life-long learning and corporate governance and management."
