Degree controversy - Credibility of Irish colleges is at stake

AS further prominent Irish holders of dodgy degrees are outed, the time has come for Education Minister Mary Hanafin to launch an in-depth probe into the realm of questionable qualifications which offer the purchasers academic kudos overnight.

Hot on the heels of the controversy surrounding reports that two senior figures in Ireland held such degrees, the Irish Examiner reveals today that two academics are now in the spotlight.

They are Mary F McAteer, a senior lecturer in the school of physiotherapy in the Faculty of Medicine at UCD and Cedric Chau, a lecturer at the Institute of Public Administration, the prestigious government-funded think-tank and academic proving ground for top civil servants.

More recently, the Government’s most senior science adviser, Barry McSweeney, was shown to hold a PhD in bio chemistry from the Pacific Western University in California, which has been exposed as little more than a one-room degree mill offering academic qualifications for hard cash.

Highly rated as an administrator, Mr McSweeney has since been moved sideways to a newly-created post as research co-ordinator in the Department of Communications. He will retain the €120,000 salary that he presently earns.

Another well known holder of a doctorate from the unaccredited Californian institution was Con Power. In his time, he has been chairman of the Financial Services Ombudsman’s Council, vice-chair of Irish Nationwide building society, chairman of the National Roads Authority, director of economic policy with employers’ group IBEC and a director at the Regional College in Sligo.

In justifying his doctorate from Pacific Western, Mr Power argues that he had five years of solid academic work behind him.

According to an official US probe, almost 500 government employees there were found to have dodgy qualifications from three unaccredited universities, including Pacific Western.

Academics in the US believe that many more such degree holders would be uncovered if an audit were carried here as suggested by the Green Party.

In a significant development, the professor of micro chemistry at UCC, Professor James Heffron, has called for a national audit of all university staff in this country to ensure that any further cases are uncovered.

Few would quibble with his contention that university and other academic institutions should carry out a full review of all their staff as part of their quality assurance systems.

Internationally, the sale of fake degree certificates by bogus colleges has become a problem in the realm of higher education where the existing regulations are not strong enough to protect authentic qualifications and institutions.

According to British reports, fake Oxford University degree certificates are on sale for £165 (€241), a scenario described by the university as a “matter of concern”.

Clearly, the proliferation of fake degrees on the internet and the sale of dodgy qualifications by phoney universities has become a serious problem.

It is high time Ms Hanafin and the governing body of the National University of Ireland carried out an in-depth audit of the qualifications of Government appointees and academic staff in order to determine the real extent of this problem in this country.

Otherwise the quality, integrity and credibility of Irish universities and degrees will be called into question.