Third-level aspirations: CEO resignation is concerning

The resignation of the chief executive of the Higher Education Authority 18 months after being appointed should be of concern to Education Minister Richard Bruton.

Graham Love is not the first senior figure within the HEA to resign in recent months. That is hardly surprising, given the growing concern within the organisation over lack of independence from the Department of Education.

Last month, Mr Bruton, along with the Minister of State for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, launched the new Higher Education and Innovation Fund, declaring, loftily: “We are aiming to have the best education and training system in Europe by 2026.”

Yet the same month, both ministers told the Oireachtas education committee that a Government decision on how to boost funding for third level is unlikely for at least another year as an economic analysis of options put forward two years ago will not now begin until 2019.

The Cassells report identified the need for an extra €600m a year by 2021 to maintain quality in higher education, rising to €1bn annually by 2030.

The HEA is tasked with guiding the governance and regulation of higher education institutions. It can only do so if it has the power, resources and freedom to fulfill its role. We are hardly likely ever to have Europe’s best education system if we keep losing the very people who can make that happen.