University president vacancy

NATIONAL University of Ireland Galway, formerly UCG, has begun the recruitment process for a new president to fill the vacancy arising next March.

Current president Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh will retire aged 65, after more than seven years in the job. His current salary is a little more than €200,000 but last week’s higher public service pay review has recommended this be increased to €270,000 by 2009.

The salary and the position are expected to attract high-calibre candidates and the position is being advertised in national newspapers from today, as well as in the Higher Education supplement of the Times in London.

“There is no specific requirement to recruit anybody from overseas, the plan is to find the person who is best able to do the job,” said NUI Galway secretary Dr Séamus Mac Mathúna.

Among the possible internal candidates could be the university’s registrar and deputy president Professor Jim Browne, who applied for the post when it was last vacant in 2000.

The selection process will involve a search committee, representing the membership of the college’s governing authority and academic council with five external members from public and private sectors, and academic life outside the university.

A selection board whose seven members will include people on the governing authority, the academic council and two external members who will be required to recommend a candidate.

Dr Mac Mathúna said interviews are likely to take place in mid-January, with an appointment to be announced a month later.

The post is a 10-year-term, subject to retirement at 65 for anybody already employed in the Irish public sector. A previous president of the university, Patrick Fottrell, was granted a one-and-a-half year extension to his term when he reached retirement age in 1998.

NUI Galway has more than 15,000 students and 1,500 staff, with a €204 million operating budget, including research spending of €46m. It is undertaking a €150m capital development programme to provide modern teaching, research and library facilities in response to its rapid growth in recent years.