Funding crisis 'could threaten the viability of Irish universities'
Chairman Out O’driscoll Months As Of College To Appointment Decided Authority,seán Has Cork’s Governing Speak After University His Several (ucc)
A core funding crisis in third-level education is putting the very viability of universities at risk, one of the country’s most respected business leaders has warned.
Sean O’Driscoll, chairman of the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), a member of the Ireland 2040 delivery board, and a former chairman and CEO of industrial giant Glen Dimplex, said the “short-term, backdated funding model” does not adhere to basic management principles taught in first-year commerce.
Governing authorities, which are legally responsible for managing the financial affairs and viability of universities, he says, have a responsibility to highlight this financial fragility and the serious strategic risk that the State is taking.
“We have no idea what finances will be available,” he told the .
"It’s like looking into a crystal ball and if you look into a crystal ball for long enough, you end up eating glass. That’s where the Irish education system is heading unless this is addressed once and for all."
Asked if the current funding model is dysfunctional, he said: “It is not best practice. I would say it is bad practice. Politicians are skilled at finding solutions. That is their job. This is not an insurmountable problem. Bigger problems have been solved.”
Several months after his appointment as chairman of University College Cork’s (UCC) governing authority, Mr O’Driscoll has decided to speak out, and said that he has been “astounded” by the short-term nature and inadequate funding of the sector.
Writing in a personal capacity in today’s , he calls on the Government to fix the problem by creating a multi-annual funding model that would give the sector certainty.
“This is not an affordability issue — it is a funding issue,” Mr O’Driscoll said, outlining a potential solution he said the Government should consider — using the vast surplus in the National Training Fund to plug the sector’s shortfall which the Government’s 2022 Funding the Future report put at €307m a year.
While UCC has a superb strategic plan, “it is built on sand”, Mr O’Driscoll warned, because of the “zero certainty” on funding.
He said: "It will be December, three months after their financial year-end before universities know what supplementary grants they will receive to part-pay for the Government negotiated public sector pay awards."
That will cost UCC €7m this year alone but it will be spring 2025, half-way through the next financial year, before universities will be advised of their core funding for the year, with inflation compounding the problem.
Providing the higher education sector with funding over a three-year period, combined with accountability measures, would provide the certainty required for it to deliver on its strategic plans and on agreed national policy priority areas such as research and innovation, life-long learning, future skills, and access programmes, he writes.
Mr O’Driscoll, who graduated from UCC with a commerce degree in 1979, is a former director of AIB, a former member of the National Competitiveness Council of Ireland, and a former member of several other government-appointed advisory groups, credits the university with changing and shaping his life and said that is why he had agreed to take on the role as chair of its governing authority.
“This is about giving back,” he said.
He has been impressed by the quality of teaching and education offerings at UCC, at its access programmes for the disadvantaged and those with disabilities, as the quality of its graduates, as well as the breadth, depth and impact of research and innovation, but says the complexity of the “overly complex and siloed” organisational structures within universities surprised him, and that they have led to duplication and communication issues.
And he stresses that universities must be open to organisational change and reform, they must also provide value for money, be prudent in the use of public resources, avoid waste and be fully transparent and accountable.
He said: "As long I am chair of the governing authority of UCC, I will make sure that that is the culture.
The revealed last January how UCC recorded a €11.2m deficit last year, forcing it to review capital projects and embark on a cost-cutting and cost-containment programme called Project Alpha. Without it, the deficit could have spiralled to over €23m.
Mr O’Driscoll insists the deficit is now under control and will “certainly be less” than it was last year but the sector-wide core funding issue must be addressed.