‘Poorer students will suffer if Institutes of Technology merger goes ahead’

Students from poorer backgrounds will suffer if the Government follows through on its commitment to merge institutes of technology.

Around 4,000 lecturers and researchers will begin industrial action next week in opposition to the plans which will see IoTs merge to create technological universities.

Delegates at the TUI annual conference expressed anger at the plans and, in a national ballot, voted by a margin of 85% to 15% in favour of industrial action.

It includes the requirement IoT’s must merge before they can apply for Technological Universitystatus, the threat to pay and conditions of staff, and the threat to the regional provision of education that IoTs provide.

Following the ballot, TUI members have been directed not to co-operate, from next Wednesday, with any merger activities relating to the bill.

TUI president Gerry Quinn said the requirement to merge was based more on cost-saving than academic considerations. “We believe that the requirement that IoTs must merge before they can apply for technological university status is more related to cost-saving than to any academic considerations based on particular missions, values and ethos of particular institutes.”

Assistant general secretary Aidan Kenny said the plans also risked the creation of geographic inequity, forcing students who cannot afford it to move to another part of the country. “Our students come from specific social and economic backgrounds. They can’t afford to travel to Dublin. So, for example, Letterkenny has a catchment area which is Donegal. With the proposals to merge institutes into these technological universities, the resources of the institutes on the periphery and in the regions will be asset stripped and brought to the centres.”

TUI deputy general secretary Annette Dolan said the merger plans were a means to further cut costs in the sector. “Since 2008, there had been €190m cut in funding to IoTs. Side by side with that, there’s been a 32% increase in student numbers and a 9.5% decrease in the number of lecturers… If you have a lot more students and a lot less lecturers, that means that you’ve larger lectures, larger classes and not the same degree of support that there should be.”