Labour costs in the developed world are too high to underpin further economic growth through assembly manufacturing. Technological innovations are necessary to drive further economic growth and the universities will play a vital role by producing highly skilled graduates and carrying out useful research, writes William Reville.
The Government has targeted university science and technology as vital to the new "knowledge-based economy". The universities are under pressure to "produce" and the heat is rising in the academic kitchen. Rows flare up occasionally and the sound of breaking crockery reaches the wider world.
The university is an ancient institution dating at least from 1088. It has served society very well. Students educated at university have gone on to do research there and most of the scientific knowledge we possess has been generated in the university. This ancient institution has a duty to itself and to society to preserve and strengthen its best traditions regardless of the demands of the passing parade.
The primary function of the university is to teach existing knowledge to the students and to discover new knowledge through fundamental research. A secondary function, being pressed hard by governments, is to apply existing knowledge to do useful things. I would rank the functions of the university in the following order of importance - education, fundamental research and applied research.
Most of the funding of the Irish universities comes from the State. Traditionally about 80 per cent of university funding was by State subvention and 20 per cent came from student fees. Since 1996 the Government also pays student fees. Until recently the State subvention was almost entirely in support of education in the university. However, the Government now also strongly supports university research, mainly applied scientific research.
The Government's new-found enthusiasm for funding scientific and technological research is aimed at bolstering our economic prospects. This is a laudable aim and it would be unthinkable for the university not to support it. But, the university has an obligation to protect basic research. The lion's share of the new research support goes to applied research. The universities should insist on a more even divide between basic and applied support.
Traditionally the university has been timid in its dealings with the wider world and has been very quiet compared with the other two sectors in education. Until recently only a small proportion of second-level students went on to university and the colleges felt that their role was not widely appreciated by society at large. Consequently they feared that if they made robust demands they would receive little public support.
But, the third-level sector in Ireland is now into mass education. More than 50 per cent of second-level students go on to third level. It is entirely inappropriate that the university sector continues to maintain its shy public image. If it doesn't change its attitude it will let itself and the country down by failing to win sufficient resources to fulfil the demands made on it. The recent disgraceful award of 3 per cent to university lecturers should be the last illustration we need of where "sucking your thumb" gets you.
How should the university be managed to meet the new demands? The idea that it should be run like a business generates much heat even though it is far from clear that anyone is proposing this simplistic formula. A good business makes a quality product as cheaply as possible and sells it for as much as the market will bear. The primary motivation is profit. Business is opportunistic rather than vocational.
The products of a university are well-educated graduates and new knowledge. While it is true in a general sense that education is "sold" for the tuition fees, it is not possible to manipulate the inputs and outputs here like you can if you are manufacturing tractors.
A university is different in many ways to a commercial business and to run a university as a business would be a big mistake. It would be dominated by short-term goals, funding opportunities would distort the balance between disciplines and the vocational spirit essential to a scholarly institution would disappear.
On the other hand, the university must redouble its efforts to run its unique affairs with efficiency, in a "business-like" fashion if you will. It can quantify this efficiency by measuring outputs such as numbers and quality of graduates, numbers of scientific publications, numbers of patents gained, etc.
Finally, in looking at universities around the world, we should be careful what we copy. Some think we should copy the US system. But much of this system is culture-specific to the US. A lecturer first appointed to a US university must serve a long (about five years) probationary period and meet certain criteria before receiving a permanent appointment. These criteria have grown so large that in order to meet them one has to work so intensely there is no time left for anything else. And all of this at a time when many are newly married and starting families. The severe human fallout from this system serves nobody well. It also marks the beginning of a career in a pressure-cooker system that, I believe, is an inappropriate model for Ireland.
William Reville is associate professor of
biochemistry and director of microscopy at University College Cork