UCC head rejects criticism from staff over speech

UCC president Dr Michael Murphy has denounced as “absurd” the notion that he could have described socially disadvantaged, disabled and mature students as “academically weaker”.

Dr Murphy said he was well placed to comment on these issues as his own social background would have made him eligible for inclusion in the Access Plus programme. He also said he had spent “almost a decade serving the disadvantaged population of South Chicago” and had worked in public healthcare systems in three countries.

He was reacting to an angry letter from staff at UCC’s School of Applied Social Studies which expressed “concern, surprise and disappointment” at his comments to the Cork Chamber of Commerce in mid-December .

The department staff had written: “We wish to affirm our own positive experiences of working with students who come to UCC via non-traditional pathways. They face enormous challenges and often make real sacrifices in order to avail of educational opportunities. They bring a wealth of life experience, critical analysis and informed opinion to the institution.

“Furthermore, rather than being academically weak, they have proved themselves capable of achieving, and often surpassing, very high academic standards.”

They denounced the assertion that the country’s brightest Leaving Cert students were choosing not to be educated in Irish universities: “Such unfounded assertions only serve to generate unnecessary hierarchy and division among students.

“Although supports for disadvantaged students are still pitifully inadequate, your speech suggests that they detract from the university’s ‘ability to maximise the talents of the intellectually gifted’. This represents an inversion of the true picture of educational inequality.”

The letter was signed by 34 academic and research staff of the school , including the dean, Professor Fred Powell, and the content was published on their pages in the UCC website.

In a speech to Cork Chamber on December 20, Dr Murphy said the opening up of more college places, with full-time higher education student numbers up 15% to 160,000 in the past three years alone, meant they were catering for a greater number of academically weaker students.

He told business leaders government policy correctly supported improved third- level access for students with disabilities, mature students and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.

However, he suggested that some of those resources should be used to offer more assistance to the most talented students, who he claimed were beginning to choose overseas universities because colleges here were unable to meet their academic needs as they catered for more students with fewer staff.