Universities to be made accountable for contribution to national strategies

Through the new framework, colleges will identify performance objectives under four pillars, including teaching and learning; research and innovation; access and participation; and engagement, which will then be set out in performance agreements published on the HEA website. 

Universities are to have to set out their unique contributions towards national strategies as well as towards goals and targets in areas like access, research and innovation.

As part of the first overhaul of how Ireland’s universities are run in more than 50 years, they will now for the first time publicly work to four-year performance agreements set between the institutions and the Higher Education Authority (HEA). 

Launched on Monday, the System Performance Framework 2023-2028 sets out the parameters under which higher education institutions will set out their contribution to achieving national strategic priorities in line with their mission, scale, location, and strategic plan.

The performance frameworks are a key component of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) Act 2022, the first major revamp of higher education legislation since the Higher Education Authority Act 1971.

The legislation aims to modernise the role of the HEA and generally reform the sector. Its introduction follows several high-profile revelations in recent years of corporate governance and financial mismanagement across higher education.

According to the HEA, the Act sets out that it should hold higher education institutions accountable for their performance, for securing value for money in the use of funding provided, and for their responsibility for performance and governance. 

The HEA also now has a mandate to measure and assess the strategic performance of higher education institutions with a view to strengthening the performance of individual institutions, and to ensure institutions’ accountability.

It is believed that the creation of the four-year agreements, and their monitoring via annual reporting, will provide robust evidence on health across the university system, and on an individual institutional basis. 

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Through the new framework, colleges will identify performance objectives under four pillars, including teaching and learning; research and innovation; access and participation; and engagement, which will then be set out in performance agreements published on the HEA website. 

As part of these objectives, universities will also reflect on national system-level priorities such as student success, climate and sustainable development, and digital transformation.

The framework animates the HEA’s legislative responsibility to strengthen the performance of individual institutions and to ensure institutions’ accountability, according to HEA chief executive Alan Wall. 

"The framework is also designed to be flexible and responsive, enabling institutions to demonstrate their unique input to the delivery of national priorities and the strength of the higher education and research system as a whole.”