A creeping corporate influence in third-level institutions could damage critical thinking and compromise genuine research, a group of academics has warned. The academics said colleges should be wary of embracing industry too readily and should instead campaign for proper funding of the universities by the State.
The warning came from SIPTU's education branch, which represents more than 2,000 academics in the third-level system.
The union's warnings are contained in its response to the Skilbeck report, which urged universities to increase their ties with business. While the SIPTU group is critical of the report, so far the presidents of the universities have been broadly supportive.
The union also warns in its response to Skilbeck that foreign students are being charged exorbitant fees to go to Irish colleges. It says colleges are anxious to recruit them because the number of domestic students is dwindling.
"However, this has little to do with fostering a multicultural understanding between students. Rather it is assumed that overseas students can be charged exorbitant fees and so be used to alleviate commercial pressure on universities," says its document.
"The great irony of Skilbeck's report is that on one hand it advocates a form of corporate globalisation, but on the other supports direct discrimination against overseas students."
On links between business and colleges, the submission says key US colleges such as Harvard are re-examining their links with industry in the light of their connections with Enron.
"Growing corporate influence runs in direct contradiction to the stated mission of many universities to foster critical thinking. Unions in Britain, Canada and the the US have all pointed to the many dangers of creeping corporate influence in college life," it says.
Corporate sponsorship often involved commercial secrecy which militates against transparency in research, and too often commercial sponsors attached restrictions on research.