The Government must move quickly to implement the OECD report as the Republic faces "fierce international competition" from universities elsewhere, a leading expert on third-level reform has said.
Dr Aims McGuinness, a member of the OECD team which prepared the recent report on the third-level sector in the State, said the public should understand the serious competition the Republic now faced.
He warned that the Government would want to see firmer leadership and stronger management in third-level colleges, of the kind proposed by the OECD, before it was prepared to commit substantially more resources.
This would have to be evident, he said, before the Government made the "quantum leap" in funding for the sector, which the OECD believed was vital.
Dr McGuinness said the institutes of technology (IOTs) in particular needed to take more responsibility for their own destiny. At present, the 14 IOTs are strongly controlled by the Department of Education and Science.
Dr McGuinness said the OECD would be reviewing progress made in implementing its report in the next three-five years.
"By 2010, we should be able to look back and see fundamental changes in the third-level sector here. We should see much greater equality of participation in the system, and the IOTs in particular moving up the value chain, moving from traditional skills to more high-level skills."
In an interview with The Irish Times, Dr McGuinness said he was "hugely impressed" by the level of debate on the OECD report here.
"What stood out in Ireland was the recognition that you are at a turning point in relation to third-level education. All the main stakeholders realised that important strategic decisions are required, that Ireland has to raise its game. There was much less special pleading than elsewhere."
Dr Jim Port, co-author of a recent report on university funding for the Higher Education Authority, said the third-level sector here needed to be more realistic about what it could achieve. It may be that some colleges were setting the bar too high for themselves, he said. "They cannot all be world class."
The reality in some Irish colleges was that staff and students were working in poor conditions. To compound the problem, the universities were working without any significant financial surplus which would allow them to make long-term decisions.
Ireland, he said, needed a change of culture when it comes to third-level. He would pose the following questions. "Are there too many universities trying to do the same thing? Should they be doing more to generate income? Should there be greater partnerships with industry?"
