THE upgraded regional technical colleges recommended by the Minister for Education's expert committee will all be called Institutes of Technology but may have different powers to award degrees and other qualifications.
The expert committee's final report was published yesterday. It recommends that all 11 RTCs be upgraded under a new Irish National Institute of Technology (INIT), which would be "statutorily established and be the main validating and award authority for the redesignated regional technical colleges".
In this it would be the "successor, including the legal successor, to the National Council for Educational Awards in respect of the regional technical colleges". It would have the power to award national degrees, diplomas and certificates and also to "devolve" its awarding powers to individual colleges or groups of cooperating colleges.
The report notes the promised process to delegate such awarding powers to the newly designated Waterford RTC, which it anticipates will be "put in hand immediately". It recommends that a "review process" be put in place for any other RTC seeking authority to award its own qualifications.
Ms Breathnach announced yesterday that she had signed the order changing the title of Waterford RTC to Waterford Institute of Technology. The report says the team to carry out the proposed review should be modelled on the team which recommended giving degree awarding powers to the Dublin Institute of Technology. It should include three international experts, two Irish academics, two industrial/commercial representatives and one student representative.
In a complex and nuanced section clearly formulated to deal with the differing sensibilities of the RTCs - the report suggests three possible titles for the new colleges: "(Town/City) Regional Region Institute of Technology; (Region) Regional/Region Institute of Technology; National Institute of Technology (Town City)."
The overall national certification authority, Teastas, would have responsibility for "approving, reviewing and auditing the processes of approved awards bodies such as IN IT", the report notes.
Fianna Fail's education spokesman, Mr Micheal Martin, said the expert committee's report "generates as much confusion as light". "The NCEA is apparently to be replaced by INIT. Where will this leave Teastas? What will be the role of the new body in relation to the present functions of the HEA and the NCVA?"