With increasing pressure to improve Trinity’s rankings and increase the university’s global influence, academics in the College have sought new ways to network and make connections in the academic community outside the walls of Trinity. The official line of advice is to carry metal cards whenever away from campus on University-related affairs.
However, much of this networking can occur within the College itself. For instance, more than €60,000 was spent in Trinity’s 1592 Restaurant in 2015 by Trinity’s schools and departments. The School of Chemistry was one of the largest spenders, claiming €2,633 in expenses. In an email response to questions from The University Times regarding the amount spent last year, the Head of the School of Chemistry, Prof Sylvia Draper, outlined the reasons for such a high total. According to Draper, the school organises a weekly research seminar which is attended by academic staff, postgraduate students and sophister students.
Draper explained that the external speakers receive no fee for giving a presentation at the seminar with many also acting in a dual capacity for the school by serving as external examiners, for instance.
The use of the restaurant’s informal setting, then, is an example of one of the ways in which the College facilitates its staff to create such connections – by providing a space for academics and their colleagues, and often guest speakers.
Draper told The University Times that most of the academics in the school also attend the lunch with guest speakers after their presentation at seminars, which can function as an important networking opportunity: “These are staff undertaking research in a cognate area for whom networking and collaboration opportunities may emerge as result of the interaction.”
The restaurant, as Draper explained, is used to provide lunch to people who provide for the College, be it in the capacity of external examiners or guest lecturers, who otherwise would not receive a fee. Speaking to The University Times by email, Head of Trinity’s School of English, Prof Christopher Morash, explained why, in particular, the 1592 Restaraunt is used for visitors. Despite being “more of a sandwich-at-the-desk person”, Morash claimed that “when one is entertaining and impressing visitors, [the 1592 Restaurant] can’t be beaten in terms of quality of food, service, and general ambiance; it’s simply not something many other universities in the country can match”.
The question is whether this emphasis on internationalisation and networking is a new one to academia or a long-standing part of the job. Speaking to the The University Times by email, Head of the School of Psychology, Dr Ian Robertson, suggested that while making connections has always been a part of maintaining standards, factors like globalisation have strengthened its importance: “Top scholarship has always been international but the globalisation of universities has greatly increased this trend. The top scholars are very busy people and without them, we could not run the university to the standards that pertain now. Having the 1592 as a place to meet with them and to exchange ideas and plans is a fabulous resource.”
Indeed, speaking to The University Times in September 2015, Prof Jane Ohlmeyer, the Chair of the Irish Research Council, noted the importance of a university having a global presence, stating that, in Trinity’s case, “global presence is having a very positive impact on the rankings”.
Of course, improving rankings and establishing new research collaborations cost money. With the ongoing higher education funding problem in Ireland, state funding remains largely inadequate when it comes to supporting the university’s activities. Informal networking, then, can bring about important connections that will support the university in new ways.
When asked about the importance of the 1592 Restaurant as an informal networking space, Robertson stated: “It is crucial that the 1592 continues to offer the fantastic service it does. Guests include visiting academics, industrialists and philanthropists who together contribute tens of millions of euro per year to the essential running costs for TCD”. Robertson played an integral role in the setting up of the new Global Brain Health Institute, which secured a donation of €138 million from the Atlantic Philanthropies, their largest donation to date, and the largest private donation in Irish history. This came after collaboration and negotiations with the University of San Francisco, which has led to the creation of a long-term, and much-heralded, commitment between the two universities.
Major external funding of €5.5 million has also recently been secured for an Al Maktoum Centre of Islamic Studies in Trinity, which only came about after a “culmination of years of discussion and negotiation”, as The University Times reported in March.
However, Director of Research in Trinity’s School of Physics, Prof Martin Hegner, spoke to The University Times by email about the importance of networking itself for academics: “Networking is a very important part of building a linked research environment especially in interdisciplinary research where I am involved in”.
However, College was not the only place academics can make connections it seems: “It happens at conferences and within research collaborations through common interests in research on a local or global scale”, according to Hegner.
In an email statement to The University Times, Ohlmeyer, who is also the Director of the Long Room Hub, Trinity’s Arts and Humanities Research Institute, emphasised the importance of hospitality when fostering collaborations with other academics: “The provision of a certain amount of modest hospitality is required on occasion to help develop relationships and we try to keep that expenditure in Trinity if at all possible”, she said. Ohlmeyer pointed to the Long Room Hub’s research fellowship scheme and public lecture series as an example of when such expenditure has been used.
Trinity’s 2014-2019 strategic plan places an emphasis on “building valuable partnerships” and expresses the importance of “bringing major international thought-leaders to Ireland for public discussions and promoting Trinity as an itinerary destination for world leaders”.
Spaces like the 1592 Restaurant facilitate the implementation of the strategic plan. Playing a larger role than one might expect from a restaurant on campus, it is becoming an increasingly important networking hub for the pursuit of an international research environment that has a large global reach.
