The Trinity Education Project – the most ambitious reform of Trinity’s undergraduate curriculum in a generation – has not been provided with a specific budget, The University Times has learned.
The decision not to provide a strict budget for the project means that every reform or measure in the ambitious project is costed separately.
Speaking to The University Times, the Chair of Trinity’s Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) branch, Dr John Walsh, said that “IFUT were told that the Trinity Education Project is operating with no base budget line”.
Vice-Provost Chris Morash, in an email statement to The University Times, said that there has been a “modest” budget for the project “all along”. He said that this budget covers the cost of the Project Manager and the Trinity Education Project Fellows.
Six Trinity Education Project Fellows were introduced last year to help with the implementation of the project. The fellows help support the various aspects of the project and come from across a range of schools and faculties in Trinity.
Morash said that the project “began with objectives – effectively the Graduate Attributes – rather than with a budget to be spent, we have costed individual items as the means of delivering those objectives have come into focus”.
“While it may be easier simply to start with a fund that can be spent, and then find ways to spend it, in a project of this scale it can be a better use of resources to cost precisely each element as it emerges”, Morash said.
Giving an example of “individual items” Morash said that the IT system changes required for the project were a focus “over the past nine or ten months, and that was then very carefully costed and is now underway”.
“There are other aspects that are now coming into focus, and they will be costed appropriately as we get clarity on exactly what is required”, Morash added.
“It’s all about spending scare resources effectively.”
The current Project Manager of the Trinity Education Project is Sheena Brown, who took over the position in 2018 after the previous manager, Fedelma McNamara, left the post to take on a position in Trinity’s Global Relations Office as Director of Internationalisation.
The Trinity Education Project aims to review and overhaul how education is offered to undergraduate students in Trinity, including how they are taught and assessed.
