John Walsh: Trinity has shot itself and whole college sector in foot
A FEW bottles of decent wine have been cracked open in Trinity College in recent weeks as a number of senior academics have had reason to celebrate with their chums.
While the rest of the public sector has to endure pay cuts, 27 of them have been promoted "because they're worth it".
These are promotions on the basis of a job well done. What they involve is a change of title and the promise of extra money from the end of year -- unless, that is, the Government puts a stop to it.
It all sounds wonderfully arcane and removed from the harsh world outside the cobble stones of our oldest university.
Trinity justified the rises on the basis that the process was in train before the moratorium on promotions came into effect.
It said the recruitment of staff was intensely competitive among universities internationally and that "retention is always a challenge".
It added: "There is a danger that excellent academic staff would be lost to international competitors and the quality of teaching, research and innovation would decline."
But that conveniently overlooks the fact that salaries for academics in Ireland -- even after the public sector pay cuts -- are still considerably higher than in most other competitor countries and that massive job losses are the order of the day in the UK.
Academics in countries such as Germany and Australia have spoken enviously of the salaries earned by their colleagues here.
But is Trinity entitled to pay the lucky 27 more out of taxpayers' money without getting ministerial approval in advance?
That's not entirely clear as we are in uncharted territory in terms of the public-pay bill and university autonomy. The Department of Education and Skills has now said it will seek urgent clarifications from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) about the pay hikes.
The HEA, which channels taxpayers' money to the colleges, is aware of the Trinity board decision and is known to have had discussions with Trinity about the matter.
After the moratorium on filling vacancies and promotions was announced by Finance Minister Brian Lenihan, an Employment Control Framework was put in place for various sectors, including higher education.
In fairness to higher education, it has been very successful in cutting staff numbers by the required 6pc and it has taken in a lot more students.
No sector could operate with all indians and no chiefs. It is accepted that some promotions are necessary for positions that would normally be filled by competition.
But one problem for Trinity is that these 27 don't all fit neatly into this category -- they are on the basis of work already done. This type of promotion was not uncommon in the past.
As Trinity remarked in its statement: "Recruitment at the lecturer level and rigorous, merit-based academic promotions are the international norm in the university sector."
True, but we don't seem to have had too many elsewhere in Irish universities this year because of the promotions embargo -- unless they slipped in under the radar. Indeed, academics in other universities are concerned about the impact the 27 promotions will have on public and political opinion.
THE Trinity board meeting of June 30 which approved them was apparently told that the promotions were "revenue neutral" -- presumably on the basis that the money saved by reducing staff numbers overall could be used for the salary increases. But this means less money for other non-pay items of expenditure, which are also essential in any school or academic discipline.
Timing, they say, is everything -- but in this case it's way off. The disclosure of the promotions comes days before the Government announces the next phase of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) funding, as well as additional capital projects for higher education.
All these welcome and essential developments are funded by the same hard-pressed taxpayers who will look askance at the Trinity 27 and their pay rises at a time when most other workers face freezes or cuts in their take-home pay or the loss of their jobs altogether.
For all its faults, the higher education system is much more productive than it was and its efficiency was recognised in an EU report, which put Irish universities up near the top in terms of productivity and employer satisfaction.
The indications are that this does not seem to be entirely recognised by some of those responsible for preparing the Government's new strategy for higher education. The forthcoming report will demand yet more productivity from the sector, as well as amalgamations or courses and institutions.
The message coming across in the confidential briefings to the stakeholders is that there is still fat in the system that can be cut. Unfair or not, the view is that there is waste, unnecessary duplication, inefficiencies and insufficient monitoring of what academics actually due to justify their high salaries.
Own goals like the Trinity promotions make it easier to sell that myth.
jwalshe@independent.ie
- John Walsh
Irish Independent
