On February 3rd, lecturers at all fourteen institutes of technology across the country will take part in strike action, led by the 4,000 member-strong Teachers’ Union of Ireland (TUI) and with support from the Union of Students in Ireland (USI). The strike comes after years of frustration with the government’s handling of the problems being faced by such institutes, as well as unprecedented austerity and rationalisation measures.
Last November, with a 56 per cent turnout, 92 per cent of TUI members in institutes of technology across the country voted in favour of taking industrial action to make clear their dissatisfaction with the state of the sector. These include understaffing, funding cuts, increased student numbers and the need to increase the international competitiveness of higher-level institutions in the country. Together, these are exerting immense pressure on institutes of technology in Ireland, with staff claiming they can no longer continue teaching under these conditions.
In the case of institutes of technology, pressures mount even further as many are located in rural areas where economic recovery has been slower than in Dublin, and such institutes are often the only option for any students who are not in a position to move.
Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) is one such institute that has felt the sharper end of austerity directed towards higher education. Dr Kathleen Moore-Walsh, a lecturer in law and TUI representative at WIT, told The University Times in an email of the severity of cuts at the institute in recent years. “Waterford has been hit hard by unemployment and the lack of funding at WIT has added to this problem”, she says, adding that “WIT has suffered the loss of 98 academics… this is the highest reduction in academic staff of all fourteen of the Institutes of Technology”. She explains that WIT’s funding has been slashed by 31.5 per cent since 2008.
Moore-Walsh later spoke to The University Times by phone, discussing the unique, disadvantageous financial position in which institutes of technology are put: “Part of the issue is the universities are able to go out and borrow money and raise money in different ways. ITs are not allowed to do that, so if we need a new building, we have to go hat in hand to the Department of Education.” She stresses that the TUI would like to see “more fairness in how resources are allocated”, adding that WIT is, at present, running at a deficit.
Aidan Kenny, an Assistant General Secretary of the TUI, spoke to The University Times about the general outlook of the TUI members going on strike, as well as the hope that the strike will improve the chances of a successful discussion with the government. For the TUI, the strike should improve the conversation with the government about funding for the sector, the reductions in staff and the quality of teaching in institutes of technology. “We estimate that about five hundred more lecturing positions are required”, he says. Indeed, as Moore-Walsh emphasised: “Student numbers are up, lecturer numbers are down, yet we are expected to do more and more with less and less”.
The entirety of higher education in Ireland has suffered from austerity, with USI reporting that, over the past seven years, funding for the higher level sector was cut by 32 per cent, all while enrolment numbers have risen by 20 per cent. This is the challenge that people like Kenny and Moore-Walsh see as the most crucial. They want the strike action to bring attention to the feeling, and the evidence, that the government is not attuned to this disparity in organising the country’s higher education framework.
In a meeting in Trinity on January 21st, the “Students Against Fees” group, a student-led, grassroots, anti-fee campaign group that originated in Trinity, committed to holding a rally in conjunction with the TUI strike.
Alongside concerns about funding cuts, the potential introduction of the Technological Universities Bill, is another worry for staff. While not a reason for the strike, Moore-Walsh acknowledged that it’s “on the minds of all the members.” The bill will see the mandatory merging of a number of institutes of technology, sometimes across a wide geographical area, changes to their structures of governance, and new rules for financial management. For example, a merger between Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the institutes of technology in Blanchardstown and Tallaght is on the cards. The official position of the TUI is that it’s opposed to “forced mergers”, with TUI members last year in WIT voting against a merger with Carlow IT.
Additionally, the bill hopes to introduce a teaching structure focused towards specialised career-building, distinct from that of traditional universities. TUI has been vocal about its concerns over the bill, including fears of a decline in education quality, coming at a bad time for a financially weak sector.
Much of the criticism of the bill is based on the large changes it seeks as well as the speed with which it is going through the government. Kenny told The University Times that “in a time of massive change and austerity, we’re saying to the department, look, there’s no funding for this bill”. Katherine Moore Walsh notes that the government is trying to push the bill through, amidst the upcoming general election: “It’s almost as if the ordinary employee doesn’t have any say in anything. It’s being forced through to gain votes at another level”.
Kenny criticised the logistics of the merging of some institutes of technology, citing the proposal to merge the Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) with Institute of Technology, Tralee (ITT). “They are miles apart”, he told The University Times, voicing concerns about the students who would need to commute for long distances every day. “Some are saying that the mergers just don’t make sense… there is a suspicion that the merger is more about rationalisation”.
WIT’s Katherine Moore-Walsh agrees: “Of course, that’s more rationalization, and that’s going to impact on a number of lecturers, but on top of that, it’s going to impact on the students. If they cut courses in Waterford, my students don’t have the financial ability to travel to Carlow or to Dublin or elsewhere… The students who are the most vulnerable are the ones who are going to be impacted the most”.
The struggles of Ireland’s institutes of technology are certainly not wholly removed from the recent experiences of Irish universities. For instance, the state grant to the College fell from €58.6 million to €47.3 million over the last three years, as outlined by the Provost’s 2014-15 annual review. It remains to be seen if the February strikes will signal a precedent for traditional universities.
Despite the challenges faced by staff across all Irish third-level institutions, it is unlikely to see a co-ordinated response happening in the near future. For instance, Trinity’s teaching staff are represented by the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT), an entirely different union. As Aidan Seery, secretary of the Trinity Branch of IFUT, said in an email to The University Times: “The actions of one union are neither a precedent, nor do they have any necessary impact on the autonomous decision making of another”. Although acknowledging that “staff and management in IoTs and universities have many common concerns”, he stipulated that “how these are addressed are a matter for each [trade union]”.
However, that’s not to say that university staff are insulated from the difficulties facing institutes of technology. Kenny doesn’t speculate that similar action will be in university lecturers’ immediate future, but he warns them to be observant. “I suppose the universities should really take a note of caution some doing that at the moment because the technological university bill sets out a change of governance structures”, he says, adding that “It’s our understanding that the government is intent on introducing a similar structure in the university amendment bill that’s set to be published in the new Dáil session”.
USI, which represents both institutes of technology and traditional universities, has been mobilising students and working with the TUI to galvanise support for the strike among students and the communities of each institutes of technology. Specific USI-TUI collaboration has taken the form of the “I Value Higher Education” initiative as part of a longer-term fight against the rising costs of access to third-level education.
Kenny tells The University Times that “one of the main tenants of [the project] is that we both support publicly funded higher education that is accessible to all citizens in the country, so we’re very concerned with the expert group funding needs… we don’t think that’s appropriate”. He cites the case of the US, where student debt is the second largest debt source in the country after mortgages.
In USI’s press release, the organisation reaffirms its support for the TUI through its “I Value Higher Education” campaign. USI, which is committed to achieving free education in Ireland, “advocates for the resourcing of a higher education infrastructure which can best meet contemporary national and international challenges and demands.”
However, it doesn’t necessarily take the established structure of a students’ union to see students offer support for their lecturers. Moore-Walsh told The University Times of the support given to teaching staff on one particular day of protest: “When we did a lunchtime protest, a lot of our students just came out and joined us”, she said. “They had no idea what it was about, but they came out and asked, and then grabbed placards. They know what the situation is.” Nevertheless, student support for the strikes still has to be fought for. In an email to The University Times, Mike Kerrigan, President of the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology Students’ Union, said that after a meeting with the Institute’s TUI representative, the question of supporting the strike would be put to their student council for a vote on Tuesday.
The strike will certainly be one of the “bigger-picture” stories that highlights the precarious state of higher education in Ireland on a visible and public level, in a way that will draw students into the debate by virtue of the strikes affecting their classes.
With February 3rd edging closer, it becomes increasingly less likely that the strike will be called off. Kenny briefly mooted the potential for a solution before then, but stresses frustration and impatience with the government over the last five years: “Members now are impatient over that period of time and they’re at a boiling point. There are serious issues that need to be addressed, but we’re saying the resolve of our members has hardened and galvanised.”
