The National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 recommended significant reform of the higher education landscape, and in particular the consolidation of Institutes of Technology to become new step-change higher education institutions with expanded missions to better meet regional and national needs.The subsequent merging of number of Institutes of Technology since 2019 is creating institutions of sufficient size, capacity and critical mass to maximise previously dispersed strengths and attract greater investment for the regions. The benefits of becoming a successful TU are significant in terms of increased national reach, international recognition, research capacity building, Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) attraction, skills retention and creation, regional development, enhanced staff and student experience and opportunities, enhanced regional development and socio-economic progression. Increased management and academic teams facilitated by the merger of institutions increase institutional capacity and facilitate enhanced performance in areas such as the winning of research funding. Government has worked to align the capital investment plans for the next decade to the most important strategic challenges currently faced, with higher education a key catalyst to advancing regional development and attracting investment both indigenous investment and FDI. In this context TUs represent a unique model for bringing together teaching and learning excellence, research aligned with enterprise and entrepreneurship, and locally rooted engagement with stakeholders and communities.In terms of economies of scale and sharing professional services the Deputy will I trust understand that while unified services continue to be rolled out across TU Dublin’s three campuses, it will take some time for the totality of unified shared services to be achieved across what is one of the largest, if not the largest, unified higher education institution in the state. However, significant progress continues to be made and since coming into being TU Dublin has established a single University Finance system which went live in 2021, a single University HR/Payroll system which went live in 2022 and the university continues to amend and enhance the processes supporting these two systems. TU Dublin also has a programme of establishing integrated university wide technology services being rolled out, some of which are completed and some ongoing. It has a cross-university library access system for all library users as well as a project ongoing since early 2023 to deliver a new unified student record management system for the university rather than continuing to operate on three separate systems. Finally, all professional service functions have been re-organised to be cross-university as opposed to campus specific service providers to the students and staff.
In addition, a fundamental overhaul of key organisational and staffing requirements includes consideration by the Government and the entirety of the TU sector of the OECD review of 16 December 2022 in relation to academic career paths, contracts and organisation in Irish TUs with the aim of ensuring that TUs are fully fit for purpose in these areas in order to assist in the delivery of national strategic priorities and individual regional missions of the institutions. The OECD note in this report the distinct differences in the organisation of administrative and professional support functions between international benchmark institutions, and Ireland's emerging TUs. It notes the contrasts in ratios of professional administrative staff to academic staff. Over time the strengths of TUs are becoming ever more evident as they further develop and become more embedded as unified entities across multi-campuses in their regions. TUs currently produce 2 in every 5 graduates in Ireland and are responsible for 51% of all graduates in STEM. More than 3 out of every 4 part-time STEM students are registered in a TU. TU Dublin provides 17% of STEM, 14% of business and 20% of services sector national provision as well as 20% of the national craft apprentice cohort.Legislatively prescribed budgeting provisions for TUs are set out in section 20 of the Technological Universities Act 2018. Similarly, staffing provisions including approval and sanctioning requirements are set out in section 14 of the 2018 Act. Staff appointments up to mid-ranking levels and encompassing certain senior posts at appropriate pre-existing grades in TUs, in particular posts falling outside the core senior university executive team, are matters for the institutes themselves in the first instance, subject to the parameters of the Employment Control Framework and public sector pay policy.Section 22 of the 2018 Act requires all TUs to furnish annual accounts for audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General and for those accounts and the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas.
