Madam, - When Mary Hanafin and Bertie Ahern decry the "poaching" of employees by University College Dublin, do they mean that UCD is openly advertising available positions and thereby running the risk that employees of other universities might apply? Is UCD actually luring these unsuspecting academic serfs into its clutches by offering them the market rate for their skills? Clearly such unscrupulous practices must be stamped out! When universities stop colluding to control the opportunities of their best and brightest, what sort of world will we live in? No doubt Ms Hanafin and Mr Ahern also have plans in mind to control who the rest of the population can and cannot work for. - Yours, etc,
KURT TIDMORE, Carrigaline, Co Cork.
Madam, - I'm quite a strong fan of Mary Hanafin: I think that both her head and her heart are very much on the ball with regard to trying to overhaul a clearly out of date education system. However, her recently reported remarks with regard to universities "poaching" staff from other universities are simply ludicrous.
Leaving aside the fact that her use of the pejorative term is a misnomer (my dictionary describes it variously as "illegally hunt. . . in contravention of official protection"), she appears to be advocating that our third-level educational academies should be restricted in their efforts to improve their offer to their customers. A further and indeed more sinister implication is that researchers and lecturers in these establishments who wish to move on (for whatever reason, professional or personal) should be able to do so only by emigrating.
So, is it now Government policy to encourage an anti competitive education system - and if so, whose interest is this in? - Yours, etc,
GERRY MOLONEY, Howth, Co Dublin.
Madam, - It is good to see that Dr Brady of UCD has finally decided to break ranks with the other university heads. For too long the universities have behaved with the consensus of the chain gang - shuffling uncomfortably along in the same direction with no real idea where they are going.
The whole point, I would have thought, in having seven independent universities is that each would have acted independently of the others. There can be no evolution without variation, and at the moment there is precious little to distinguish one from the other. - Yours, etc,
MIKE SCOTT, Foster Place North, Ballybough, Dublin 3.