Colleges agree collaboration Sunday, June 14, 2009 When University College, Dublin, and Trinity College Dublin announced their €650 million innovation alliance last March, there were calls for further collaboration between universities.
Now Dublin City University, NUI Maynooth and the Royal College of Surgeons are in discussions with a view to deepening their links, mainly in research, teaching and administration. The forging of links between universities is something that those outside universities - and some of those inside - have been planning for some time.
It is widely believed that the country has too many universities and that there should be more collaboration - mergers, even - between third-level institutions. There is also a need for universities to join up in order to make a stronger case for funding, at a time when most third-level colleges are being crippled by debt.
The government’s framework for the development of a smart economy, which was launched last December, called for the creation of new alliances and arrangements that would create high-quality jobs for the future. Arising out of that was the UCD/TCD alliance, and this has been followed now by an alliance of sorts between DCU, NUI Maynooth and the College of Surgeons. High-level discussions began three or four months ago with meetings between the university presidents.
A working group - two people from each college - was then set up to look at ways to establish deeper links. The working group is to report to the governing authorities of NUI Maynooth and DCU in the next few days.
John Hughes, NUI Maynooth president, said that the main catalyst for these high-level discussions was economic reasons, with the institutions anxious to see where they can introduce efficiencies.
‘‘We do see opportunities for shared services around procurement and human resources and other areas. With regard to human resources, there could be benefits from an economies-of-scale point of view, and there is certainly the possibility, at the very least, of a common system being introduced across the three colleges,” said Hughes. ‘‘Most universities are in debt at the moment - apart from DCU and Maynooth, ironically - and we will be looking at efficiencies.”
However, he said money was not the only driving force, and the discussions had grown from previous links between the colleges, mainly concerning research collaboration over the past four years.
‘‘We find that we work well together, and that is very important. We complement each other with the sciences that we engage in, and the link with the medical school is very important for both DCU and Maynooth. In turn, they offer a different kind of experience for the Royal College of Surgeons,” said Hughes. ‘‘We are the two smallest universities, with 9,000 students each, and we thought there would be a benefit in us getting together and looking at opportunities for joint proposals.”
The colleges are also looking at how they could share international partnerships.
‘‘For instance, the College of Surgeons has a big presence in the Middle East that we could get involved in, and we have a strong presence in China which they could be interested in. We could also work on joint proposals in new countries,” said Hughes. The talks are ‘‘looking at ways in which we can collaborate more on the research and the teaching side,” according to Ferdinand von Prondzynski, DCU president.
‘‘We are not excluding collaborating on other fronts - the process is only just under way, so I can’t be more specific than that right now,” he said.
Von Prondzynski pointed to the already well-established relationship between the three colleges, mainly in the area of high-value research projects. Funding for such research has already been applied for on a joint basis under the government’s PRTLI (Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions) (see panel).
One IDA grant was also received jointly by DCU and the College of Surgeons.
‘‘This relationship has been reflected in the recent cycle of PRTLI funding. We did say we would have a look at developing a deeper partnership. We are discussing what we can plan around that but it’s a long, long way from an outcome,” said von Prondzynski.
‘‘These discussions will work in the first instance at developing deeper linkages and look at other possibilities of opportunities for deeper collaboration. But these things don’t happen very suddenly, and we will keep everyone informed about it. Nothing in the plans is designed to lay people off,” he said.
While reports last week of a merger between the three colleges has been officially ruled out, one participant in the talks said it was not unrealistic that this could happen in the distant future.
However, talks of a merger - which would change the landscape of the country’s third-level structure - is not on the agenda at the talks and has not, at this point, arisen in any discussions or conversations.
‘‘I couldn’t rule it out, as no one knows where the debate will end up,” said the source. ‘‘It is not impossible that a merger could happen at some stage but it is a long, long way away. It has not even been mentioned.”
He added that if such a move was on the cards, ‘‘a lot of softening up would have to be done’’. ‘‘There would be concerns from some people that, if that was to happen, it would be an attempt to cut numbers, given the current climate.
There would also be the major dilemma of location - but all of that is a long way off, if it even is considered,” he said. Hughes agreed: ‘‘Nothing is being ruled out, but I doubt that this will lead to a full-scale merger. But there could be a federation set up, similar to the NUI approach - an overarching body that would oil the wheels of the colleges. A merger would be a long, long way off, even if it was to happen.”
The current talks follow the €650 million research collaboration between UCD and TCD, announced in early March.
A host of government ministers, including the Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, the Tánaiste, Mary Coughlan, and education minister Batt O’Keeffe, as well as the heads of the two universities, were at the launch of the UCD/TCD Innovation Alliance in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland. At the time, the two university heads - Dr Hugh Brady of UCD and Dr John Hegarty of TCD - claimed that the new partnership would result in 300 high-tech businesses and up to 30,000 jobs over the next ten years.
‘‘The creation of lasting jobs is the only solution for the country. We want to boost the university contribution to enterprise development by equipping graduates with the skills and ambition to be job creators, rather than job seekers,” Brady and Hegarty said in a joint statement.
Similar in concept to the IFSC, the alliance, the president and provost said, would create a world-class enterprise corridor, which would cater for 300 new enterprises.
Although it was described as a bold, brave and radical move, and was welcomed by other third-level colleges, the other universities were secretly annoyed at the way the links between TCD and UCD had been forged.
‘‘The way it was done was so secretive. I don’t think that the other universities would have been so annoyed about it if they had known it was going on. It was just that they were working away on this behind the scenes and told no one about it,” said one education source. ‘‘It wasn’t so much that the other universities wanted to get involved in it, it was more that they are annoyed that it was kept so under wraps.”
However, it has spurred on greater links between other colleges, such as the one now being discussed between DCU, Maynooth and the College of Surgeons. One person who is involved in the new talks said it would be done in ‘‘an open way’’. ‘‘We will be very happy that, if any specific is shaping up, we will let people know about it.”
A spokesman for education minister Batt O’Keeffe said that the government’s framework for the development of a ‘smart economy’ had clearly setout avery specific challenge to the higher education sector to create new alliances and organisational arrangements.
These alliances, he said, should advance our knowledge capacity and generate opportunities for new levels of efficiency, performance , innovation and growth.
‘‘Any moves by third-level institutions to respond to that challenge are, of course, welcome,” he said. ‘‘The challenge to create new alliances and forge better collaborations was a system-wide one. The national strategy on higher education, which is due to be completed by the end of the year, will examine the need for re-organisation and re-configuration of roles across the system.”
He said that Ireland needed new thinking across the system in facing the challenge of renewing our economic performance.
‘‘It’s important that the higher education sector as a whole plays its part in developing new responses to the direct economic challenges we face,” the minister said.
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