College staff ‘fear’ work scrutiny
As public debate about funding difficulties in universities and institutes of technologies gathers pace, with fears of further cuts to the €1.9 billion third-level budget next year, pressure is coming on academics to increase teaching activity and openness to their work being examined.
Last year’s An Bord Snip Nua report proposed a review of hours worked by lecturers, particularly in universities. The HEA has committed to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) to supply statistics on the hours spent by academics teaching undergraduates, conducting research, and other duties.
Higher Education Authority chief executive, Tom Boland, said colleges do not do themselves justice in their capacity to transmit what they do to the wider community, especially to policymakers and those in charge of funding. “Questions asked as to the return on past and present investment are met with a response that is all too often lacklustre and wholly unconvincing to any reasonable sceptic.” he said.
Mr Boland said the lack of information is often the main challenge to having informed debate on higher education, making it more difficult to make the case for an extra share of public resources.
There are fears of further cuts to the sector’s €1.9bn budget next year.
“There appears to be a near fetishistic fear among many academics of sharing information with Government, or even in some cases collecting it at all,” he said at an Ireland-Britain joint conference on third level research at Dublin City University.
His comments come ahead of a meeting today between Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Harvard University president Dr Drew Faust, who gives a speech to the Royal Irish Academy tonight on the role of the universities in a changing world. Despite cuts to its €2.9bn funding, she has reduced fees for middle-income students to make the college more accessible to those ineligible for state aid.
Meanwhile, the executive of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), whose members rejected the Croke Park deal, will tomorrow consider its response to the acceptance of the public service reform package by the wider union movement.
