'Groundbreaking' contracts promised for technological university lecturers

Simon Harris addressing the TUI delegate conference in Wexford today. Picture: Tommy Clancy

A "groundbreaking" contract will be delivered to lecturers and researchers in the technological university sector, but what it may entail was a contentious issue at the opening day of the Teachers' Union of Ireland's annual congress in Wexford.

The start of May will see a fifth TU come into being with the Munster TU, TU Dublin, the TU of the Shannon, and Atlantic TU in the North West to be joined by a TU for the South East.

Higher Education Minister Simon Harris said these cannot be "some sort of pumped-up institute of technology" nor a "watered-down traditional university" and instead would need significant financial support to stand apart.

He told TUI members that it is critical a fit-for-purpose career structure for academic staff exists in TUs. Mr Harris said: 

That, in turn, will require a new and groundbreaking type of academic contract that ensures staff are facilitated and encouraged and indeed rewarded for the many and varied roles they fulfill.

Delegates raised concerns about the breakdown of work facing lecturers in TUs, pointing to how traditional university lecturers are allocated greater time to carry out research in their roles.

Congress voted overwhelmingly to recognise that as many of the institutes of technology (IoTs) have now become technological universities, they are required to engage in research as well as teaching, sometimes resulting in "excessive contact hours and teaching levels".

The vote now mandates the union to engage in negotiations "to reduce the quantity of contact hours" in teaching with a view to enhance research instead.

Susan O'Shaughnessy, a branch member at TU Dublin who introduced the motion, said that if a lecturer has a 16-hour teaching workload, it can often amount to "at least double that, making researching and engaging "impossible to achieve" for lecturers.

"For us in TU Dublin we're constantly being told that we're modeling ourselves on Strathclyde University in Scotland. 

In Strathclyde University, lecturers have a maximum of 12 contact hours per week and associate professors and professors do three hours a week, so let's aim for that. 

Another motion, calling on the union to oppose the rotation of senior academic jobs within the TUs, was defeated after a heated debate.

The idea of the rotating roles is that it will provide an improved career path, allowing lecturers to progress to a senior non-management role before rotating back to their old post after a period of up to five years.

When accused from the floor of trying to "oust" academics from long-held roles via rotation, TUI executive member Ray Ryan disputed the claim and said the contract will not affect terms and conditions of anyone in a senior role.

However the rotating roles — which are expected to create numerous posts at each TU — are part of a package that has yet to be signed off on by the Government.

Mr Harris said an analysis of TU academic career structures and contracts has been undertaken by the OECD, and his officials are discussing the work with the Department of Public Expenditure to "put the case for the significant funding that will be needed" to provide for the new career structures.

"I intend to bring the OECD report to Cabinet in due course and to update Government on its contents," he told delegates.