Proposed changes to university governance amount to “wholesale State ownership of the third-level sector”, according to Trinity’s Prof Sarah Alyn-Stacey.
Alyn-Stacey, a Fellow of the College and a member of College Board, has criticised the Higher Education Authority Bill in a letter to the Irish Times, accusing the government of neglecting the sector and blaming the resulting decline of Irish universities on themselves.
She said that the bill “erodes academic autonomy and the excellence that ensues from such independence”.
“We might indeed ponder how the Irish universities as a whole have come to find themselves at the current juncture and what they, and broader Irish society, will gain from the new Bill”, she said. “It is indeed this independence that has benefitted Ireland over many years. The Government’s assertion that the new Bill will permit greater accountability is laudable but in reality a smoke-screen: it suggests that the universities have brought the Bill upon themselves whereas this is far from the case.”
“It is the failure of successive Irish governments to fund adequately the third-level sector (and to eschew its own accountability for this) which has led, quite logically, to the imposition of the Bill.”
The bill will allow the Higher Education Authority to attach conditions to funding for third-level institutions and provide it with the ability to withhold funds from these institutions if its performance or other problems are not satisfactorily dealt with internally.
It will also see changes to the size and composition of university, institute of technology and technological university boards. Boards will consist of 17 members, including at least eight external appointees and two students. Including the chairperson, these changes would allow for the possibility of a majority of external board members, including three appointed by the Minister for Higher Education.
The proposals have been particularly controversial in Trinity, with fears that the university’s collegiate model of governance is under threat.
Alyn-Stacey’s letter was in response to another which questioned why the legislation was not seeking to implement Trinity’s style of governance in other Irish universities.
Alyn-Stacey said: “Trinity’s governance model should indeed be a benchmark for other institutions to imitate: as it stands it permits representation of a wide variety of college constituencies (fellows, non-fellow academics, support staff, postgraduates, undergraduates) and is a far more democratic model than the one permitted under the new Bill.”
Insufficient state funding, she continued, has resulted in “the place of Irish universities in the latest world rankings: Trinity clings to its place at 101 when we used to be the equal of Oxford (one) and Cambridge (five)”.
“What the new Bill proposes (and it would seem to be a done deal by university presidents seeking something akin to appeasement) is a wholesale State ownership of the third-level sector.”
Alyn-Stacey put herself forward to contest the Provost election last year, but was deemed ineligible to run at the interview stage. She said the process “blurred” the distinction between an election and an appointment.
She is a member of the College Board and University Council, as well as serving on the Finance Committee until this year. She also holds a position on the Standing Committee of Fellows.
She is an associate professor in the Department of French and the founding director of the Trinity Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. She has been elected to the Académie de Savoie, and in 2017 the president of France bestowed a knighthood upon her for her services to her discipline.
