More investment needed in digital infrastructure for teaching, research and cybersecurity

A higher proportion of capital budgets for higher education should be invested in digital infrastructure for teaching, research, and cybersecurity

Universities must provide value for money, be prudent in the use of public resources, avoid waste, and be fully transparent and accountable.

In the 1960s, more than 40% of children of school-going age in Ireland had left education by the time they turned 15.

In 1967, the vision of Donogh O’Malley, then minister for education, changed Ireland when he introduced free secondary education for all.

With that inspirational decision, the Limerick man wrote himself into Irish history. 

Ireland had decided to invest in its future. 

That decision and our subsequent investment in education transformed Ireland into one of the most prosperous countries in the world.

Education created a highly-skilled workforce and opened us to new ideas, diversity, and cultures. 

Education must continue to be the foundation of a fair and prosperous Ireland.

Taking education for granted or under investing in it are not options that we should take.

As the recently appointed chair of the governing authority of University College Cork (UCC), I am hugely impressed by the overall quality of teaching and education offerings.

Access programmes for the disadvantaged and those with disabilities are uplifting to witness and bring much welcome diversity and equity into our education system. 

The breadth, depth, and impact of research and innovation is way ahead of my expectation.

Our universities have global research leaders who are developing extraordinary new understandings and insights in their respective disciplines.

However, universities need to be much better at the commercialisation of this research and innovation and in their engagement with business.

Our highly-educated graduates are much sought after. 

They are the engine of our economic development and those alumni working across the world are wonderful ambassadors for Ireland.

A skilled workforce underpins investment in our economy. 

Universities are large employers and have huge national and regional economic impact. 

A recent independent economic impact assessment of UCC demonstrates that the State gets a €6 return for every €1 that it invests.

The complexity of the organisational structures within universities has surprised me. 

They have developed organically over decades and are overly complex and siloed. 

This gives rise to duplication and communication issues. 

Universities must be open to organisational change and reform.

They must provide value for money, be prudent in the use of public resources, avoid waste, and be fully transparent and accountable.

Sean O'Driscoll is surprised by the complexity of the organisational structures within universities. 

Artificial intelligence is changing the world by the second and curriculum innovation and development needs greater agility to educate for the rapidly-changing world we live in.

Many of today’s jobs will not exist tomorrow. 

Universities have an enormous portfolio of buildings which can and must be better utilised.

A higher proportion of capital budgets should be invested in digital infrastructure for teaching, research, and cybersecurity. 

The short-term nature and inadequate funding of higher education has astounded me. 

It will be December, three months after their financial year-end before universities know what supplementary grants they will receive to part-pay for the Government-negotiated public sector pay awards.

In UCC’s case, this year that cost is €7m. 

It will be spring next year, half-way through their financial year, before universities will be advised of their core funding for the year.

First year business students are taught one of the oldest, simplest, and wisest management principles, “if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”.

The short-term, backdated higher education funding model does not adhere to that basic management principle. 

Our highly-educated graduates are much sought after.

Under the Universities Act, governing authorities are legally responsible for managing the financial affairs and viability of universities. 

With the current fragile state of universities’ finances, governing authorities also have a responsibility to highlight this fragility and the serious strategic risk that the State is taking.

There is general acceptance that higher education is underfunded.

In 2021, the Taoiseach, who was then minister for higher education, said funding “is an issue which has been ducked and dodged for far too long”.

In 2019, the Tánaiste said “in terms of core funding of higher education, the system needs clarity and certainty. We have to end the permanent insecurity about what each year brings”. 

I agree with the Taoiseach and Tánaiste.

In May 2022, the Government published Funding the Future, its definitive response to funding higher education. 

This report quantified the additional core funding required at €307m per annum. 

A commitment was given that this report would not need “dusting” or a “shelf to stick it on”. 

Government has not yet honoured this commitment.

This is not an affordability issue; it is a funding issue. 

There is a solution. 

The National Training Fund currently has a surplus of €1.5bn and is projected to increase to €2bn by next year.

The solution is simple, and it makes sense to unlock some of the unused funds to provide multi-annual funding for higher education.

A multi-annual funding model, together with accountability measures, would provide the certainty required to deliver on the sector’s strategic plans and on agreed national policy priority areas such as research and innovation, life-long learning, future skills, and access programmes.

The upcoming budget provides the minister for higher education with the opportunity to convince his colleagues of the absolute necessity to resolve the higher education core funding crisis once and for all. 

If successful, like his fellow Limerick man O’Malley, Patrick O’Donovan will justifiably write himself into the history of Irish education.

It is time to do the right thing.

• Sean O’Driscoll is chair of UCC’s governing authority, chair of the Economic and Social Research Institute, and a member of the Ireland 2040 delivery board. He is writing in a personal capacity