The Government should take on vested interests in higher education and allow individual presidents to face down mediocrity, writes Edward Walsh
In July the Enterprise Strategy Group made a most important report to the Government. Its recommendations are directed towards sustaining Ireland's economic achievements under the fiercely competitive conditions of the emerging knowledge-driven global economy.
The group highlights the fact that our past success, while providing a platform for future growth, does not guarantee that growth. Ireland's current success is fragile and the changes called for by the strategy group must be addressed with urgency and serious intent if Ireland's economy is not to falter, or indeed proceed to dissipate as rapidly as it was achieved.
A responsive and flexible higher educational system is identified as one of the key sources of competitive advantage for Ireland, and the group calls for quite fundamental change in the way the universities are funded, governed and managed. Irish universities have played a key role during the past decades in contributing to Ireland's success story. But the emerging knowledge-driven economy, in which we now compete, is much different to the manufacturing production-led economy of past decades.
The higher educational system is challenged to be more responsive and flexible in producing a new range of graduates from bachelor to doctoral level and to demonstrate international excellence in teaching and research when benchmarked against counterparts in competitor countries.
Reform of the higher education system is no longer a matter for academic debate: the Enterprise Strategy Group identifies it as a critical area of focus for the future of the Irish economy.
But increased investment alone will not be enough. Major reform of the way we fund, govern and manage our universities is essential if we are to reap the full competitive benefits of increased investment. The problems of funding and governance are not unique to Ireland: indeed most EU countries have similar challenges. However if Ireland, as a small country, moves swiftly to bring about fundamental reform in higher education it stands to win competitive advantage.
But this is not going to be easy. While there is a growing awareness of the strategic importance of our universities at the highest levels of Government, years of financial constraint and inconsistent departmental policies, compounded by the arbitrary diversion of university funds to other educational projects during the past two years, leaves universities somewhat demoralised and confused about the commitment of Government to higher education.
The strategy group recommends that enterprise should play an increased role in the governing authorities of the universities and of the Higher Education Authority. Such bodies, it recommends, should be reduced in size and reflect in equal proportions the needs of enterprise, education and society.
The strategy group calls for international benchmarking. University league tables are not usual in Europe, as they are in the US. But the publication this year of an international ranking of universities (Academic ranking of world universities-2003. Institute of Higher Education, SJTU. Shanghai), in which EU universities were included, foreshadows what is to come. Unlike our competitor countries, not one of our universities was listed among the top 200. Trinity fared best, followed by UCC, then UCD, but they were far down the rankings from 250th to 450th. There was no mention of the other four Irish universities in the top 500.
While this ranking is an unpleasant reality, and some may argue that the criteria were inappropriate (and no doubt if different criteria were used the outcome would be somewhat altered), however there is little doubt that the criteria managed to accurately identify the top 10. Harvard came first in the world, followed by Stanford, Caltech, Berkeley, Cambridge, MIT, Princeton, Yale, Oxford and Columbia.
Of the top 10 all but Oxford and Cambridge are US universities, and of these all but Berkeley, are private corporations. The US universities are no-nonsense performance-driven organisations that in the relatively short time since the second World War have managed to outflank their European counterparts.
A distinguishing feature of these universities is their governance, not by academics, but almost without exception by the hard-nosed and distinguished leaders of US enterprise and the professions. As external board members they give the president the support needed in putting systems in place that encourage the pursuit of excellence and weed out mediocrity.
Such boards consider that their prime task is to hire the president, support the president and if necessary fire the president. As distinguished leaders from outside the university, they tend not to meddle in the day-to-day detail: they focus on the big picture and the broad strategies that are likely to strengthen the university.
In Ireland many business people find it curious that our universities are governed in an entirely different way. They wonder why the chief executive of any organisation should report to a board composed predominantly of employees, and how such an organisation can be managed effectively.
They wonder why the governance of a highly complex and costly organisation, such as a university, should have on its board significant numbers of junior faculty and staff who have little or no experience in governance, or indeed of much else outside their academic or administrative area.
The current unhealthy reality is of course that many, if not most, of the presidents of Irish universities have a very difficult job indeed, and have to divert a considerable amount of their time and effort in attempting to secure the right outcome through the strange and cumbersome governing structures. They have on occasion to grapple with the frustration of not bringing forward major proposals for essential change, simply because there would be little hope of securing acceptance by governing boards composed as they currently are.
Their counterparts in the great US universities have problems and challenges of course, but not these. The environment they work in is demanding and taxing and the consequences of personal failure to meet demanding performance expectations can be high. The important thing is that they can confidently expect board approval for change - provided that the measures proposed will improve the university, even though there may be serious opposition to such change amongst the faculty and staff. They have clear authority from their boards to take executive action in rewarding excellence and weeding out mediocrity. They do not have to grapple with the silly time-consuming skirmishes involving the cliques that often emerge within Irish governing structures.
Instead they deal with hard-nosed, experienced people who, as acclaimed national leaders, are giving their time and guidance to the university, knowing how vital it is to the future wellbeing of their community. They deal with people who focus on the major strategic issues related to the pursuit of excellence and who subject their proposals to demanding scrutiny. They deal with people whom they also know will take decisive action if they are dissatisfied that strategic university goals are not achieved.
Reforming the composition and functions of the governing authorities of Irish universities and of the HEA itself, does not require additional public funding (indeed it should generate savings), but it does require determination on the part of Government to take on vested interests in order to provide Irish universities with the kind of governance required. The kind that will provide the support and encouragement a president needs in bringing about change, creating performance-driven organisations, facing down mediocrity and nurturing, cherishing and rewarding those of ability and endeavour.
Greater funding levels are required if the Irish universitiesare to rebuild and compensate for 80 years of relative neglect and catch up with their leading international counterparts. While the funding issue is quite crucial, it would be prudent to take decisive action on the governance issue at the outset so that there is the appropriate talent, experience, empowerment and motivation at the top of each Irish university to deliver overdue change, catch up and pursue excellence.