Institute to sit tight on university application

THE Government must clarify its higher education policies before an application to make Waterford Institute of Technology a university should be decided, an expert has recommended.

A report for Education Minister Mary Hanafin concludes that, while there is merit in examining WIT’s upgrade application under the Universities Act, broader national policy factors would also have to be considered.

It found that the existing application process does not set out specific criteria which should be examined, making it difficult properly to investigate such applications in the absence of direct government policy.

The college applied for university designation in February 2006 and the minister commissioned British higher education expert Dr Jim Port to consider the application. His job was to advise on whether a full investigation of the application should be sanctioned and his report was published yesterday.

Dr Port has suggested three options in the report which was completed last July, but has only been approved by the Cabinet two days ago.

He suggests three preferred options, including:

* Deferring any consideration of the application until a policy review was carried out to establish clear criteria for research management at institutes of technology.

* Treating WIT’s application as a test case for a new type of investigation of university applications.

* The Government could make clear that the designation of ITs as full universities is off for now. Dr Port acknowledged, however, that this would risk appearing negative, although the Government could work with the Higher Education Authority to improve funding and regulation for ITs.

“We do not believe that there are other credible options. The obvious fourth option of maintaining the status quo [either with or without an investigation of WIT’s case] is in our view highly unattractive and potentially damaging to the further development of Irish higher education,” the report said.

WIT governing body chairman Redmond O’Donoghue said the compelling case for a University of the South East has won strong endorsement from Dr Port and the college will engage with Ms Hanafin’s officials and the Government on the next steps forward.

“The report speaks of significant benefits in having a university in the region that it says would benefit the southeast economically, socially and culturally, much as we and others have asserted for some years now,” he said.

Dr Port found that WIT had shown its further development could be constrained by its status, and that staffing and funding conditions which do not allow it to invest in research structures are a financial drain which can not be sustained long term.

He concluded that, in order to clarify uncertainties, it would be very helpful if the Government was to make explicit its policy on the circumstances, if any, in which an IT could be designated a university, to define and publish criteria for university status, and make a statement on the role of research in the IT sector and how it should be funded.