Byrne, Delma

English

MURAL - Maynooth University Research Archive Library

AISHE-J Volume 7, Number 2 (Summer 2015) 2381Review of Irish Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective, byPatrick Clancy, Dublin, Institute of Public Administration, 2015*Delma ByrneMaynooth UniversityPatrick Clancy’s examination of Irish Higher Education in comparative aspect is a welcomeconsolidation and framing of Irish HE policy alongside wider European and Internationaldevelopments. This book represents an important analysis of recent trends in Higher Education inIreland, and it carries considerable weight as it comes from Pat Clancy, whose relationship with theHigher Education Authority (HEA) goes back to 1978. There are three particularly interestingaspects of the book. Firstly, over 13 chapters, we are offered a very comprehensive location of IrishHE within other European/International systems. Secondly, the volume moves beyond issues ofparticipation and access to higher education to include aspects of Higher Education (HE) pertainingto the academic workforce/profession, research, funding, governance and reform as well as futurechallenges. Finally, the book offers a strong critique of recent higher education policy in Ireland,particularly policy developments since the Hunt report which set out the National Strategy forHigher Education to 2030 (DES, 2011).The introductory chapter provides a strong critique of current Higher Education policy in theRepublic of Ireland. In doing so, Clancy places considerable attention to the changing relationshipbetween universities, other higher education institutions and the state; indicating changing patternsof governance whereby the objectives of HE are increasingly defined by the state rather than by the* URL: http://ojs.aishe.org/index.php/aishe-j/article/view/238AISHE-J Volume 7, Number 2 (Summer 2015) 2382academy, and emphasising a fundamental shift in the autonomy/accountability balance, through aheightened state-directed reform agenda. A policy direction towards sectoral re-organisation andthe advent of a new funding approach to HE through the use of performance compacts is stronglycritiqued as evidence of the rise of the evaluative state, complemented by a rise in managerialism.A further key argument being made is that the growing importance of knowledge, research andinnovation in a globalised world are changing the social role of the universities and highereducation institutions, with implications for the roles that higher education is expected to play. Tothis end, it is argued: ‘Higher education not only has become responsible for the development ofhuman capital but is positioned at the heart of the ‘knowledge triangle’ of education, research, andinnovation designed to improve competitiveness and economic growth’ (pg 2). Linking the local tothe global, he argues that reform initiatives that seek to transform higher education institutions intobetter-managed higher quality organisations that more directly contribute to national development,points in the direction of greater isomorphism with globally favoured models of the university andhigher education. As a result, we are prompted to reconsider the mission and aims of HigherEducation which he argues has been distorted by the priority of instrumental and utilitarianobjectives, and the privileging of economic development objectives to the neglect of personaldevelopment and cultural objectives. The subsequent four chapters focus broadly on the dynamics  of  structural anddemographic features of the higher education system - ‘Expansion and Diversification of HigherEducation Systems’, ‘Measuring Participation in Higher Education’ - and processes underlying theoperation of the system ‘Admission and Retention in Higher Education’, and ‘The StudentExperience: Curriculum and Social Conditions’.  While there has been considerable sustained andongoing engagement with these topics by academics working in Ireland, clear contributions arederived from the comparative lens. For example, the Irish experience of expansion anddiversification of HE mirrored that of the experience of most European countries, and according tothe higher education participation index, Ireland is now represented within the top one-third of 28countries. New insights are offered around the age and gender profile of HE participants: Irelandhas the fifth highest concentration of students aged less than 20, and given the sustained increasein mature student representation we are now in line with other OECD countries with regard to therepresentation of mature students in HE. There is stability in gender patterns at HE, as the trend ofAISHE-J Volume 7, Number 2 (Summer 2015) 2383increasing female dominance has halted: a pattern evident in about one-third of OECD countries.While there is less emphasis on higher education and recent migratory trends, theinternationalisation of education and cross-border flows of students also comes into investigation.Trends in HE participation in Ireland have many commonalities with other systems, yet it wouldappear that a certain distinctiveness around Irish HE emerges, which is outside the remit of thebook, and so is not fully articulated.The next six chapters focus on ‘The Academic Profession’, ‘Research in Higher Education’, ‘HigherEducation and the Labour Market’, ‘Funding Higher Education’, ‘Governance and Steering’ and‘Structural Reform of the System’. In these chapters, we obtain insight into processes ofglobalisation in higher education, and the evaluative state. Accounts of comparisons of Ireland andother European/OECD countries extend to the earnings of higher education graduates, the fundingfor higher education, comparative trends in governance, and models and experiences of structuralreform of higher education systems. It is through these comparative experiences that the local islinked to the global, where we derive an understanding of commonalities in changing patterns ofgovernance, and arguments relating to the (changing) social role of higher education institutions areintensified.  These chapters also offer an account of the advances that have been made in the Irishcontext, and an insight into the lessons that have been learned in other institutional contexts. Thereis considerable space allocated to the very topical issue of the funding of higher education. Inchapter 10, the importance of maintaining a research infrastructure and a favourable researchclimate is to the fore, as is a concern with the impact of the recession and state decisions madearound the funding of higher education. The issue of cost-sharing is addressed and there is awarning issued against the implementation of a loan scheme for students under the currenteconomic climate. The issue of precariousness and the causalisation of the workforce in Irish HEwere less explored. The final chapter then addresses the challenges ahead for Irish Higher Education under six generaltitles. These include funding (at the macro, meso and micro levels), flexibility of provision (part-timeparticipation, labour market activation programmes, digital technology and MOOCs), expansion andinclusion (limits of expansion, intractable inequalities, differentiation), quality issues (quality oflearning, grade inflation), steering and policy contestation, and sustaining mission diversity. AISHE-J Volume 7, Number 2 (Summer 2015) 2384The strength of this book lies in its scope, comparative perspective and critical thought around theissues presented. A solid institutional knowledge of the workings of the Irish Higher Educationsystem in comparative aspect is supported by the excellent use of data to illustrate the argumentsbeing presented, alongside an outstanding review of the empirical and policy literatures.  Thepublication of this book is very timely, and fills a considerable gap in the Irish literature. It will be ofgreat benefit to not only students and staff working in education, but to policy makers, keystakeholders and the international academic community. 

Review of Irish Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective, by

Patrick Clancy, Dublin, Institute of Public Administration, 2015

http://mural.maynoothuniversity.ie/6344/1/DB-Review.pdf

Review of Irish Higher Education: A Comparative Perspective, by Patrick Clancy, Dublin, Institute of Public Administration, 2015

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