Sir, – I have known Dr Hugh Brady since before he became president of UCD. No university president from Ireland in my experience is more admired in America for their expansive vision and dedication to the highest standards than Dr Brady.
Thus, I attempted to read Tom Garvin’s recent ranting in The Irish Times about UCD under Dr Brady (Education Today, May 1st) and came away astonished. I must admit that I found it difficult to progress beyond his opening two paragraphs. In the latter, Prof (Emeritus) Garvin appears to be most upset that there is no longer a hard copy telephone book in the modern (sic) UCD and that the annual president’s report is no longer published in the form of a large book.
I wonder if either existed in Newman’s time, and I’m pretty sure that neither exist in this form in most modern world-class universities in the internet age! Prof Garvin liberally references philistines in his heart-felt commentaries on higher education. At least to this reader, his writings more often trigger words such as “Luddite” and “dinosaur”.
For that matter, where was Prof Garvin during the decades when UCD was languishing as a sleepy second-rate institution – an ivory tower with the lights well and truly off?
Now, perhaps more than ever, Ireland needs excellent universities to compete with the world’s best. It strikes me that The Irish Times could more usefully give a voice to the younger generation of stars in Ireland’s universities which gallantly operates at the vanguard of international higher education and research despite shrinking State investment and counter-productive State constraints on autonomy.
I, for one, am delighted that my alma mater is at the forefront of this effort and has risen to international prominence to a degree that was unimaginable in past decades.
Much as it may upset Prof Garvin, the quality of UCD’s education and research programmes is now ranked among the world’s best by international peers across the humanities and sciences. Furthermore, UCD’s presence and reputation in China and other developing countries has established the university as “one-to-watch” in the US and other jurisdictions. – Yours, etc,