Three applicants to the role of Provost have confirmed to The University Times that they have successfully cleared the interview stage of the process, and can now be nominated to run.
Prof Linda Doyle, Prof Linda Hogan and Prof Jane Ohlmeyer all confirmed to this newspaper this evening that they are eligible to proceed to the next stage of the election.
Prof Sarah Alyn-Stacey, who confirmed late in November that she had applied, did not respond to requests for confirmation that she would be proceeding to the next stage by time of publication. Other possible candidates in the race have yet to be announced.
Eligible candidates will tomorrow receive nomination forms, which must be signed by 12 members of the electorate and submitted by noon on February 5th.
Applicants to the position have to undergo an interview process to be deemed eligible to run for the position of Provost. The interview panel comprises several members of College Board and the president of Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union.
The official campaign period will start on February 5th, and will run until April 7th.
Ohlmeyer was previously the director of the Long Room Hub until earlier this year, having been elected in 2015. She is also a Fellow and is an expert in early modern Irish and British history, holding the title Erasmus Smith’s Professor of Modern History at Trinity. She is also the chair of the Irish Research Council. She ran unsuccessfully for Provost in 2011.
Doyle recently stepped down from her position as the Dean of Research, a role she has held since January 2018. Doyle, one of Ireland’s leading researchers, was the first woman to take up the role in almost a decade.
Hogan is currently Professor of Ecumenics and was Vice-Provost from 2011 to 2016. Her tenure saw Trinity deal with the fallout of the 2008 financial crash and its impact on higher education.
The brief of the role of Provost is vast: a 10-year term of office at the helm of Ireland’s most prestigious university, leading its academic, administrative and financial affairs.
Cormac Watson also contributed reporting to this piece.
