The impact of current decisions cutting higher education funding may put longer term goals out of reach and undermine significant modernisation reforms being pursued in the universities, writes Gerry Wrixon.
Over the past year there has been a lot of commentary about the role of higher education in building the future of our country. A succession of reports have said that the sector must be a national priority if we are to compete and be successful in the years to come.
Both the OECD and the Enterprise Strategy Group have written about how we need to invest in increasing the level and quality of our graduate population. There have been few dissenting voices about the basic direction of their recommendations.
Indeed the former minister for education, Mr Dempsey, publicly accepted the OECD finding that "the tertiary education system that Ireland needs to sustain the highly innovative economy which is its fundamental objective will require considerable further investment".
But if we are to move forward on this agenda we must first stop going backwards. Central to this is the need to reverse the substantial real-terms cutbacks forced on the universities this year.
Nobody can deny that the international recession forced tough choices on public policy makers. However, the budget settlement for universities was especially tough. The most dramatic part of this was that the universities, uniquely for the civil and public service, were not even given the full cost of implementing the national pay agreement.
This forced us into an extremely difficult position. Government policy, which we must respect, is that we are not in a position to meet shortfalls through undergraduate tuition fees. Similarly, we are not in a position to negotiate the remuneration of most of our staff as this is done centrally.
Faced with a grave situation, we decided to honour the pay agreement and to avoid compulsory redundancies. The full impact has, therefore, been felt in a number of other vital areas.
Each institution has seen deterioration in the ratio of academics to students. Similarly, support services have been squeezed and there has been a major fall in maintenance activity.
Perhaps the only beneficial effect of this is that the long-held myth that universities are sitting on large reserves has been investigated and proven to be completely false. In fact, the review which the Higher Education Authority published on this issue contains a number of stark conclusions. Following the most detailed examination of the financial status and planning of the seven universities, the review stated that action is required now.
Firstly, it found that the universities are carrying unacceptably low reserves for institutions of their size and commitments.
Secondly, it found that funding is being diverted to basic maintenance but still the universities do not have the resources "to maintain their physical infrastructure in a fit condition".
Finally it found that there is an immediate need to give the universities medium-term security in their funding so that they can undertake strategic financial planning.
If we look at the agenda set for us by Government, it requires us to play a central role in helping move our economy up the "value chain" through increasing graduate numbers and, especially, dramatically increasing the numbers with post-graduate qualifications. The specific target of training over 3,600 new doctorate level researchers in strategically important areas has been set.
Underneath every report has been the core assumption that we must protect and improve high standards. The fact is that this requires decent facilities and the ability to maximise the interaction which each student has with academic staff.Research programmes can only be successful if they are built on a well-resourced undergraduate foundation within universities.
My concern is that the impact of current decisions may quickly put longer term goals out of reach and undermine the significant modernisation reforms being pursued in the universities.
The situation today is that a failure to reverse this year's cuts will lead to lasting damage. So far they have been absorbed through quite severe action. Without a reversal of the cuts, the impact next year will be compounded and we will have to consider measures which we have been able to avoid so far.
It is not a case of seeking more funds for more of the same. It's now a question of investing in delivering a more dynamic, responsive and accountable university sector.
We are not interested in special pleading. We are willing to accept the challenge of playing a central role in meeting national priorities. We are also willing to submit to competitive processes and external reviews. But there is no way around the fact that this is a moment of truth in terms of our national commitment to having high-quality higher education.
Over the years the universities have played a central part in helping to create the conditions for economic success. We are proud of this and are eager to fulfil the role set out for us in protecting and building on this success. The reversal of this year's cuts and the full provision for core costs in 2005 is an essential first step in helping us to meet this challenge.
• Gerry Wrixon is president of UCC and chairperson of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities