Tech university application decisions to be made by November

Decisions should be made by November on whether technological university applications can be made by two planned mergings of colleges in the south-west and in Dublin.

The Higher Education Authority has appointed international experts to evaluate the plans already submitted by the prospective applicants: Cork and Tralee institutes of technology, which plan to become Munster Technological University; and the Dublin Technological University Alliance, comprised of a proposed amalgamation of Dublin, Blanchardstown and Tallaght institutes.

This is just an interim step on the path to possible designation as a technological university, the strict criteria for which were set out by the HEA in 2012 on foot of the sector recommended for development in the 2011 20-year government strategy on higher education.

“Technological universities are, potentially, an exciting and valuable addition to the Irish higher education sector, enhancing student choice and broadening the range of outcomes,” said HEA chief executive Tom Boland. “But it is vital that, in their creation, there is no compromise on quality or in the capacity of any new institution to be recognised in Ireland and internationally as operating at university level.”

The international panel will advise the HEA on the viability and adequacy of plans received earlier this year from the Munster and Dublin groups. It is to be chaired by Lauritz B Holm-Nielsen, former rector of Aarhus University in Denmark, which has undergone mergers with research institutes and other colleges to form a 34,000-student university.

The other members are Kay Harman, adjunct professor at University of New England in Australia, and an international expert on higher education mergers, and Philip Gummett, who was head of the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales until 2011.

The experts will assess the capacity of each consortium to achieve the objectives of consolidation in terms of academic rationale, scale, and the extent to which workplace practices have been developed to bring them in line with those of a modern university.

They will also be measured against the criteria required for technological university status, that include the range of qualifications available, the proportion of lifelong learning and postgraduate students enrolled, and the qualifications held by staff. By the time any prospective application is made, 90% of full-time academics must have at least a masters degree or equivalent, and 45% should have a doctoral degree.

Any application for technological university designation that may follow the evaluations would also be assessed by international experts, whose recommendation will inform the HEA on advising the education minister whether the status should be granted or not.