The impact of recent Irish higher education policy on a Catholic University-level College of Education and the Liberal Arts

Abstract

The Irish Department of Education and Skills’ National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 (2011; better known as the ‘Hunt Report’) and subsequent policy initiatives continue to impact on the Republic’s HE sector. This paper examines the effect of such initiatives on Mary Immaculate College, a third-level Catholic College of Education and the Liberal Arts with campuses in Limerick and Thurles. Three facets of the College that have been significantly affected by system policy are considered: first, looking inwards, MIC as an organisation; second, looking outwards, the College’s place in the regional and national HE landscape; and finally, looking around globally, MIC as a Catholic institution. This last facet of the College – its Catholic ethos – has been central to MIC’s identity since the 1890s, and while running counter to the values espoused by the National Strategy, it nevertheless enhances the College’s distinctiveness in the current Irish HE landscape.

Keywords:

• higher education
• Catholic higher education
• policy
• organisational culture

Notes on contributor

Paul Collins teaches at the music department of Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and is also organist and choirmaster at the city’s Redemptorist church of Mount St Alphonsus. One of his principal research interests is nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Catholic church music, and his edited volume, Renewal and Resistance: Catholic Church Music from the 1850s to Vatican II, was published by Lang in 2010.

Notes

1 MIC’s distinctive ethos and mission is informed by the vision of social justice and the emphasis on educational inclusion advanced by Catherine McAuley (1778−1841), founder of the Sisters of Mercy. The College seeks to promote ‘a sense of identity enriched by an awareness of its Catholic tradition’ (mission statement), and its current strategic plan (to 2023), like that covering the period 2012−2016, rests on seven foundational, strategic pillars (inspired by Proverbs 9:1), the first being ‘Catholic heritage and values’ (MIC 2019 [full version], 35). The priorities relating to this first pillar highlight the College’s commitment to both ‘the Catholic intellectual tradition’ and ‘the precepts of Catholic social teaching’ (MIC 2019 [full version], 37−39). It is worth mentioning, too, that in a paper given at the 2009 ICUSTA (International Council of Universities in the Spirit of Saint Thomas Aquinas) conference, held at MIC, Limerick’s Bishop Donal Murray highlighted the need for Catholic colleges of higher education to understand and articulate their ethos, noting that the latter is often done in mission statements ‘with varying degrees of success’ (Murray 2009, 9).

2 The document opens by acknowledging that the Irish HE system is highly regarded internationally (based on ECOFIN research), but adds that the perception of the quality of Irish HE had suffered following the collapse of the country’s public finances.

3 By ‘specialist institution’ the HEA had in mind those higher education colleges with a specialist focus on, for example, teacher education or art and design.

4 The HEA (2013b) uses this expression to characterise the dynamic and innovative regional centres of knowledge that are created as institutional clusters actively engage with regional authorities, enterprises and community organisations.

5 The Shannon Consortium was formed in 2006 by UL, LIT, MIC and the Institute of Technology, Tralee, with a view to promoting ‘inter-institutional strategic cooperation and operational resource sharing’ (MIC 2019, 9). Since then, the HEA, placing greater importance on the development of regional clusters in Irish higher education, has reconstituted the Consortium as the Mid-West Cluster of higher education institutions. Also, in the present configuration of clusters identified by the HEA, IT Tralee is part of the South Cluster.

6 The College has established its network of strategic partnerships with these and other HEIs to foster a global outlook in all that it does and to internationalise its campus community through the inbound and outbound mobility of students and staff. As a member of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU), the International Federation of Catholic Universities (IFCU), and the International Council of Universities in the Spirit of Saint Thomas Aquinas, MIC also seeks to connect with institutions around the world that share its heritage and values.

7 In a blog post (‘Subverting Irish university autonomy’, 24 September 2013) written two years after the Hunt Report was published, the former president of Dublin City University, Ferdinand von Prondzynski, spoke of the ‘visible shift’ in public policy towards ‘a more centralised management of the [HE] system.’ In an earlier post (‘The meaning of university “autonomy”’, 18 June 2013), he also opined that university autonomy, for senior public servants, did not mean ‘independence in formulating strategy’ but rather ‘freedom to choose appropriate management methods to implement a government strategy.’

8 In March 2019, UL announced its decision to cease involvement with the joint liberal arts programme. Students already enrolled on the programme will continue their studies, but the programme will be phased out by the academic year 2023−2024.

9 Walsh (2018, 456) remarks how MIC, during the presidency of Michael Hayes, ‘pursued a distinctive strategy of asserting the college’s Catholic identity and seeking alliance with Catholic institutions in Ireland and the USA, which caused tensions with Minister [Ruairí] Quinn.’

10 The Strategy remarks that any move to approve new universities ‘would reduce the diversity in the overall system and have a negative impact on its ability to respond to the country’s innovation needs and development opportunities’ (DES 2011, 15).