Sir, – The new board of the Higher Education Authority has been announced with Minister for Education Richard Bruton giving it more of a "business focus" with a number of board appointees coming from a business-friendly background (News, July 28th).
At first I thought this is yet another move by Mr Bruton to corporatise higher education – seeing it primarily as an economic tool and not as a instrument to transform society. But perhaps I’m being sceptical. Maybe the Government is about to appoint a broader range of people on various State and semi-State boards.
Imagine! How wonderful would it be to have an historian on the board of the Central Bank? An artist for Science Foundation Ireland? A physicist for IMMA? An environmentalist for Nama? I live in hope!
– Yours, etc,
Dr SHANE BERGIN
School of Education
University College Dublin.