Olly Donnelly and Jack Leahy
Patrick Prendergast, Provost of Trinity College Dublin and Chair of the Irish Universities Association (IUA) 2014, will host a symposium on higher education titled “Performance & Sustainability” at the end of the month. The symposium will take place on September 29th at the Royal College of Surgeons on Kildare Street.
The presidents of Ireland’s seven universities rotate responsibility for chairperson of the IUA, and Prendergast has assumed the position for this academic year. He will deliver opening and closing remarks at the symposium, which will consider a number of issues relating to higher education. Specifically, presentations will be given on industrial and academic perspectives on higher education, as well as examining regulation, “sustainable funding models” and role of philanthropy in funding for higher education.
Other speakers include University College Cork’s Dr Michael Murphy, who famously remarked in 2012 that his salary of €232,000 per annum left him “as challenged to pay the bills as anyone else,” and who has previously advocated the increase of third-level fees to between €4,500 and €5,000.
The event, now fully booked, will feature presentations by national and international experts in the field of higher education, including representatives from the University of Oxford, the European Universities Association and from the financial services firm Ernst & Young. Laura Harmon, president of the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), will also be speaking at the event as a panel contributor. Since its foundation in the 1950s USI has advocated that third-level fees be fully exchequer-funded.
A live web stream of the event will be provided, with details thereof to be confirmed by the IUA in the coming days.
The IUA council is made up of the provosts, or those in equivalent positions, of each of the seven universities in the Republic of Ireland, in addition to one further representative of the IUA itself. The association is funded by member contributions, and has experienced a notable reduction in its funding in recent years. From just short of €3.9 million in 2009, the association took in less than €1.8 million in 2012, a cut of over fifty percent. More recent financial figures are not available.
In an interview with The University Times about the IUA and its funding during the 2011 provostial election, Prendergast attacked the organisation, saying that it “needs to up its game” and that it “needs to take on board the importance of differentiation of mission.” He added that he would consider “advocating breaking with the IUA”, before correcting himself and adding that “advocate” was too strong a word, but that he was definitely “putting it out there”.
