Discussing the third-level education sector, Kieran Mulvey – who was appointed the first General Secretary of the Irish Federation of University Teachers in 1975, when he was aged 24 – said: “I believe we have always placed a tremendous value on the provision of education in this country. I am not an advocate of the introduction of multinational business practices within third-level education, nor do I believe in the Professor Ed Walsh school of “edunomics” or the creation of “management clusters” around University Presidents. I believe that performance and achievement indicators are necessary and that the highest benchmarks are to be achieved. Third-level institutions are seen as centres of excellence and indeed privilege at times. They must continue to deliver on the public expectations of them.

“Irish society, its political system and its institutions of Government need reform. We have to get it into our collective national psyche that we are not down and out internationally” said Kieran Mulvey. “Amidst the potential collapse of trust, respect and confidence in what was generally accepted as the pillars of society, Irish society is seeking to establish new standards, new values and more enduring moral political and financial benchmarks.

“Of concern for those of us who operate in the public service milieu is the abject and almost complete failure of the “light” regulation model, deficiencies in corporate governance standards and the lack of appropriate oversight in some state institutions. We need to see more transparent and effective action by the Office of Corporate Enforcement, disciplinary action by the professional bodies and the disbarment from directorships by those who corporately approved, signed off, or oversaw and supposedly-regulated corporate and financial failures.

“A real and thorough cleansing of the Augean stables is necessary. In this recession we can change from a society of greed, the accumulation of property and wealth and a culture of ‘me-féinism’ to a more-inclusive and less-vacuous society, with more redeemable, tangible and shared values. The one change I would advocate is the constitutional right of the people themselves to periodically vote on matters of national interest/policy in order to inform the legislature of the will of the people. It works in other well-established jurisdictions – most notably Switzerland.”

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here. Kieran Mulvey’s speech is available in full here.

“If there are issues in higher education that Minister Coughlan is concerned about and does not understand, she should come to us”, said the General Secretary. “Who is better able to speak knowledgeably about an issue such as Grade Inflation: the people who work in the system, or the CEOs of two multi-national companies?”

Discussing the current national situation, Mike Jennings stressed that no national sense of common purpose exists. He said the economy has been mismanaged into a spectacular collapse and that many of the most objectionable aspects of the ‘transformation agenda’ for higher education will not result in any significant financial savings.

“For those of us who work at the service of the public good there is a constant belittlement of what we are, who we are and what we do. Making do with income cuts of between 17% and 20% is not easy.

“It is not just the loss of income imposed by a discriminating pension levy, by increases in taxes and by reductions in salary. Threats to our employment contracts, asking us to sign up – sight unseen – to a Higher Education Review Body Report which has not yet even been written and attempts to make us spend endless wasted hours counting and accounting for every minute of our days, are not based on the need to spend money more wisely. They are petty, ideological-inspired attacks on the whole fabric of a higher education system which some of our controllers have never understood and never valued.”

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here. The General Secretary’s speech is available in full here.

“In spite of underfunding, the Irish University system is a successful university system. The Heads of the Irish Universities regularly report that the Irish University system is about half the cost per student as an equivalent UK University”, the IFUT President said. Quoting a recent EU Report, he pointed out that Ireland is at the top of the ‘efficiency’ league table and stressed that:

• Irish graduates are the most highly employable in Europe;
• Irish universities have the highest graduation rate in Europe;
• Ireland has the highest percentage of graduates in Europe;
• Universities in Ireland, Finland and Sweden are given the highest ‘excellence’ rating by academics in other EU countries.

“The Universities are being ruined by the Government embargo and moratorium. Posts in Universities remain vacant as the Government refuses to allow their filling; as a result departments are struggling to maintain their courses.”

Hugh Gibbons concluded by stressing the breadth and variety of University research and the narrowness of the Department of Finance interest. “Universities carry out all kinds of research: research that is socially useful, that investigates the fundamental properties of nature, research into mathematics, into our history, languages, culture, education and even economics. The only research the Department of Finance is interested in, is research that would give rise to a commercial return and this mostly relates to Science and Engineering.”

The IFUT Press Release is available in full here. The President’s speech is available in full here.

“While recognising that there are some positives in the proposed agreement, the offer of a blank cheque for the renegotiation of staff contracts, with fundamental and far reaching implications for educational standards, is simply not acceptable,” IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, stated.

The Executive of IFUT also decided that the conditions of employment of its members will not be subject to aggregated vote by other unions on the proposed agreement and reserved the right to make whatever decisions are necessary if members’ jobs and conditions are put in jeopardy.

The matter will be put to a full ballot of the union’s members following its Annual Delegate Conference on 24 April next.

The IFUT Press Release is available here.

Messages have also been sent by the former South African Minister of Education, Professor Kader Asmal, as well as Senator Ivana Bacik and Senator David Norris.

All of the above are either current or former members of the union.

Dr Garret FitzGerald, former Taoiseach and a member of IFUT, will address the ADC on Saturday next, 25 April. Dr Fitzgerald made history by being the first ever Taoiseach to be a paid-up member of an ICTU-affiliated trade union.

The full text of President McAleese’s message of support and further details on the ADC can be read in the IFUT Press Release, which is available here.