I met with the bookies’ favourite candidate for Provost, Professor Patrick Prendergast, as he cleared his desk in the Vice-Provost’s office, having resigned the position at the start of the week to hit the campaign trail.
The second contender to announce his candidacy after Business School professor Colm Kearney, he’s seen as the front-runner, with Paddy Power offering odds of 11/10 on his gaining the highly-paid position and moving into No. 1 Grafton Street, ahead of undeclared historian Jane Ohlmeyer, pulling down odds of 11/8.
Although he praises the work done by the Trinity Foundation and its Alumni Director, John Dillon, Prendergast is keen to highlight his ideas for revitalising Trinity’s alumni network and its revenue-raising capabilities, by changing the current centralised system to put the duty of fundraising in the hands of individual Schools and Departments. “When someone asks me what I remember of my time in college, besides friends in clubs and so on, it’s personal contacts with staff in my discipline – this needs to be more central to engaging with Alumni”
John Hegarty’s relationship with the HEA and government has always been quite friendly. I asked Prof. Prendergast whether he believed a Provost should take a more aggressive approach when dealing with government to try and increase support to the university. Broadly speaking, the answer was no – “It’s right to conduct business in as friendly a way as possible. Banging on the table is often not the best option. We need to make it clear to government that Trinity offers great value for money. We have between 750-800 teaching staff serving 17,000 students, and we provide high quality degrees of international standing.”
Prendergast complains that John Hegarty has focused too much on innovation and research, rather than teaching. “If you boil down John Hegarty’s Provostship to one word, it could be ‘innovation’. Now while this is important, I would favour a holistic approach re-emphasising the importance of the ‘education’ element – it is higher education after all, not higher innovation.”
After spending two difficult years behind the Vice-Provost’s desk, responsible for the College’s academic output, the engineer has faced tough decisions in balancing the budget. He clearly feels that his experience has equipped him for Trinity’s top job – “A Provost needs to have sound academic judgement, and an ambition for Trinity. I’ve shown both over the last two years and I have a lot of experience in managing the serious financial situation, so I could hit the ground running on August 1st 2011.”
