University in bid to save NUI from Bord Snip axe
Wednesday December 23 2009
A CAMPAIGN has been launched to save one of Ireland's best known institutions, the National University of Ireland (NUI).
This follows the Bord Snip Nua report, which claimed abolition would save €3m a year.
The NUI is a federal institution with nine constituent and recognised colleges, ranging from UCD to the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland.
Doubts about its future have also been raised by the Education Department and the renewed Programme for Government, which indicated that some functions could be transferred to a new statutory agency.
But the university is fighting back, saying that abolition would seriously damage a valuable national brand at home and abroad. It would also dismantle a national institution strongly associated with the State since its foundation and which has a proud record of support for the language, history and culture of Ireland.
Since 1993, the NUI has received an annual state grant of €12,697 and the remainder of its €3m income comes from the colleges. If the NUI was abolished, money would still have to be found to pay external examiners, print degree parchments and maintain the register of graduates and archives, it said.
"The logical course of action is for the Government to reject the McCarthy report recommendations on NUI altogether, together with the narrow, restricted interpretation of its role contained in the consultation paper from the Department of Education and Science," it says.
Response
In its response, the NUI points out that the national university enjoys high recognition internationally. NUI institutions are increasingly successful both in attracting international students to Ireland and in delivering programmes in campuses abroad. This is particularly important in medicine and health sciences. Abolishing the NUI would severely inhibit this growing internationalisation.
"It has taken over 100 years of distinguished and high credible service to build up this unique national brand for Ireland; to dismantle it . . . would be a disaster for Irish education and for the country as a whole.
"Such a proposal would run counter to the policies pursued both nationally and at European level of promoting inter-university collaboration. Rather than dismantling such a structure, it should be expanded to give an opportunity to other Irish universities and higher education institutions to form links with the NUI," it adds.
- John Walshe Education Editor
Irish Independent
