EDUCATION:GLOBALLY, AS society has evolved, higher education has responded to different needs and many types of university now exist.
The debate here in Ireland has also moved beyond there being only one type of university, to the proposed designation of technological universities, where specific criteria are satisfied. It is important that this leads to a transition to a truly new type of university for Ireland.
Irish higher technical education has made a significant contribution to economic, social and cultural development over many decades and has expanded and evolved to meet the demands of mass education and a wide range of economic and social imperatives. A new technological university should continue traditions of flexible provision – this is critical to providing many life-changing opportunities for entry into higher education by non-traditional routes.
It is also important to continue to offer programmes oriented to careers, though the concept of a “career” has changed irrevocably and the pace of innovation is such that new sectors will continue to emerge. Few graduates expect a job for life with a particular employer, many do not even expect to remain in the same field over their career. Irish graduates are increasingly mobile, networked and entrepreneurial, career-wise and geographically. Their qualifications also need to be portable and the higher education institutions in which they study must be readily understood from a European and international perspective.
Fundamental to the concept of a university is the development of profound understanding, the growth of broader intellectual rigour and extending the boundaries of knowledge. These attributes are a basis for different kinds of university to flourish, from our fine traditional institutions to technological universities. Such a continuum of diverse universities would be differentiated by their distinctive ways of satisfying divergent needs of different future learners – but different does not mean inferior. All forms of education must unlock and develop talent, not merely validate it. A technological university, providing multi-level and access routes, must not be seen as a less worthy institution. Such a view would be to erroneously confuse economic and social disadvantage with an inherent lack of talent.
The concept of a technological university is long established in European countries and further afield in Canada and Australia, where it is used to denote the particular focus of the university. In many cases networks of technological universities have emerged. In Australia the Australian Technology Network of Universities, founded over 30 years ago, represents five universities of technology and 25 per cent of the Australian student population.
When discussing technological universities, there is a natural wish to follow an existing example. However, the many examples of institutions available worldwide each reflect their own national contexts and it would be foolish to simply replicate them. Ireland needs, now more than ever, to evolve a new kind of technological university to take us forward.
While illustrative examples should not be replicated directly, Ireland needs to create technological universities that:
(i) aim for a sustainable spin-off company creation rate similar to the world-beating record achieved by the Technion in Israel.
(ii) have a popular parity of esteem, such as would be the case between Ryerson University with its more traditional neighbouring universities in Toronto,
(iii) seek to break down boundaries between disciplines while retaining a practical ethos, as in the Olin College of Engineering in Boston’s wealthy suburbs and in the development of the HafenCity University in the very different surroundings of the docks of Hamburg; and
(iv) the student-focused emphasis on directly linking theory and practice via problem-based learning that distinguishes Aalborg University in Denmark.
To realise their potential, Irish technological universities must also be unfettered from the myriad layers of petty, restrictive and inflexible regulation that has bedevilled them. Strong governing bodies should ensure probity in the use of public funds but also the academic freedom to use evidence to challenge established views. The arbiter of performance must be peer review.
Funding of the present Irish higher education system remains primarily oriented to school leavers. This is despite rhetoric, special initiatives and the many heroic efforts of particular individuals supported by their institutions, to develop lifelong learning. The overall higher education system needs to be re-engineered so that life-long learning students are treated in all ways the same as school-leavers. With that re-engineering, technological universities with multiple-level flexibility, can create true pathways tailored to enable individuals to realise their full potential in a new or enhanced career or by becoming their own boss.
In Ireland, students are not always encouraged to make an informed choice as to the best match between their aspirations and an institution’s ethos, learning focus and graduate qualities. Some of this is snobbery, but mainly it is because the proposition presented to potential students is a hierarchy of institutions, rather than a continuum of different types and forms of university that have parity of esteem.
Prof Brian Norton is president of the Dublin Institute of Technology
