Rose Conway-Walsh criticises higher education bill's governance limits

Thank you Minister, as you know I and Sinn Fein support legislative reform in higher education to clarify the role of the HEA and increase inclusion and access and to ensure proper governance and accountability and I do want to recognise you and your department have taken on board a number of recommendations that Sinn Fein put forward during the pre-legislative scrutiny and not all of them but some of them and those included issues in relation to the role of the HEA in promoting the Irish language increasing north-south cooperation increasing the number of board members the removal of the limit on the number of members on the academic councils as well as others and I welcome the inclusion of student representation on the board of the HEA I would also call a new minister to take on board the committee recommendation that trade union representation should be included on the board of the HEA likewise I welcome the the inclusion of the inclusion of a specific role of a specific role of the HEA in promoting the cross-border cooperation in higher education now the education committee also specifically called for the role of the HEA in promote for role for the HEA in promoting the cross-border student enrollment and I note and welcome that the bill now makes specific reference to the role of the HEA in promoting the Irish language thus I assume that was an oversight in the general scheme and the general scheme and I am glad that that is now included that said the role given to the HEA in promoting the Irish language is weaker in the 2022 bill than in the 1971 act that it will replace and the 1997 universities act and I believe that this should be strengthened despite these changes from the general scheme there is still a substantial room for improvement in this bill we will continue to work constructively with you in the hope to get this bill where it needs to be as things stand I am not satisfied that you have struck the right balance between the autonomy for the institutes of higher education and the government governing oversight I have engaged extensively with the sector over recent months and the management of every institution accepted the need for the need for the highest standards in transparency and accountability for public finances that was without exception and that is beyond question and you will always have my support and Sinn Féin's support for any policy that achieves that however there are many proposals in this bill that reduce the autonomy of institutes without any clear relationship with transparency and accountability and I have yet to see or to hear a convincing justification for dictating for dictating for dictating such rigid governance structures such as the mandatory 17 member limit on the governing bodies these are unpaid positions every governing body has its own unique makeup and tradition slashing the numbers allowed on the board seems like a decision that colleges it seems to be based on colleges it seems to be based on the colleges are more than colleges are more than capable of making themselves provided they meet certain standards of competency and of external representation the substantial reduction in size will put more strain on the members and will reduce representation on the board of a different institutions and the wider communities The removal of the broader representation on the governing bodies I believe will be a real loss It is unfair to say that the legislation will move the sector to a competency-based governance model Governing bodies are currently made up by members of the academic and the non-academic staff Undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students, alumni, local authority nominees, trade union representatives, employers organisations and others and only in 2018 a fine gale government passed legislation on technological universities that stipulated a 22 person governing body or 26 in certain cases and a few short years later that has been reduced even further again without any clear explanation of its merits and I think we need to have further discussions on that It is claimed that this bill will promote a student-focused system However, it seems that because of these reforms to governing bodies students will have less representation on governing bodies in all HEIs Minister, you need to clarify the potential impact this could have on representation of student undergraduate and postgraduate on the governing bodies The representation of staff, academic and non-academic by current staff as well as trade union representation Governing boards are benefited and strengthened by external membership but again this legislation mandates a majority of external members without clear justification or explanation and I wonder how strong the justification could possibly be given board exemptions have been granted for Trinity I have no issue with Trinity being shown flexibility to reflect its unique governance structure but I believe that different models can be equally successfully provided Certain safeguards are in place to ensure good governance, transparency and accountability Trinity is not the only college with its own unique history and governance structure and I think about the newly reformed Atlantic Technological University that will soon make Castlebar a university town and I look forward to that The multi-campus Technological University involves thousands of students spread across locations in Castlebar and Galway City, Killebegs, Letter Fract, Letter Kinney, Mount Bellew and Sligo and the geographical spread and multi-campus means that it is very distinct from most other colleges yet it is provided with no flexibility to anyone student, parent, academic staff or otherwise this looks unfair and elitist I think you should look again at the rigid, overly prescriptive governance structures a fair approach that can be applied to everyone without damaging the unique characteristics and the differentiated missions of the different institutions A stated purpose of this bill is to clarify the role of the HEA The bill seems to strengthen the HEA in some ways However, in some ways the HEA seems to have been reduced to a regulator rather than a strong independent authority capable of advocating for the needs of the sector The HEA should have a role in ensuring the sector is adequately resourced Under this bill, as it is, I believe it is not possible to do that Now, as it currently stands, the HEA no longer has any role as a voice for the sector A clear example of this is the fact that the CEO from the HEA will be specifically prohibited from commenting on policy The bill states that the HEA shall not question or express an opinion on the merits of any policy of government or a minister of government or the merits of the objectives of such a policy I know this is not the first piece of legislation to put this limit on the CEO of state agencies But that does not mean we should just accept it as the right way to go And I would like to hear from you, Minister, on this issue as why it is necessary Because this fundamentally means that the HEA will be incapable of advocating for the sector and challenging government Another issue is that the bill grants sole powers of review to the HEA CEO And empowers the CEO to make a determination whether further action is necessary following a review The right of the HEA to appeal decisions by the HEA must be robust enough to provide HEIs with assurances that they challenge decisions In the HEA heads of the bill published last summer, all determinations of actions could be appealed Whereas the bill only allows a right of appeal against remedial measures On top of this, an appeal does not put a stay on the implementation of the measure determined by the CEO An appeals framework of this nature was not contemplated by the HEA heads of the bill And I hope that you will be willing to work with the opposition and the sector to amend this section I have met with most third level colleges, as I said, in the state over the last 12 months All of them were more than happy to be held to the highest standards of accountability as recipients of public funding That said, there was also a great deal of concern about the watering down of the institutional autonomy Good governance and accountability can be ensured without sacrificing the autonomy of our third level institutions The greatest testament to the governance of higher education is that they have managed to maintain the performance of the system over the last 10 years We have seen over a decade of austerity in the higher education sector Fundamentally, governance is not the main issue facing the sector Legislative reform will be of limited value unless it is accompanied by a sustainable funding model But you acknowledge that yourself and indeed you acknowledge when you acknowledge the numbers have increased That has not been underpinned by funding in the way that it needs to be During that time, there has been a piecemeal privatisation and a deep commercialisation of public third level education Today, most universities have a majority of revenue coming from sources other than from the state And some of that is positive, such as winning competitive research funding or attracting more international students However, it has been driven out of the necessity due to what the Irish Universities Association labelled State divestment from third level education and that should concern us all The ethos and the focus of these centres of education and research have been shifted towards commercial consideration And huge amounts of time and energy is spent operating on a commercial basis Energy that would be better spent on education and research And I do not blame the individual institutions This has been explicit policy of successive governments But, Minister, I will work with you on this legislation We want to make it as good as we possibly can Where we are rectifying legislation that is 50 years old And I think we really have a duty and a responsibility to do that And I look forward to working with you I'm just losing my mind And I look forward to working with you That's right I'm very happy to be talking about And that means that The world has been truly a part of the system In our last century We're at the moment We're actually going to be looking at it We're at the next century We're taking the time We're at the moment We're at the moment We're at the moment We're at the moment We're at the moment We're at the moment We're at the moment