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![I.1. CONTEXT AND INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS
REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006
21
full programme of evidence taking and visits prepared by the Department of
Education and Science is given in Annex C.
The Terms of Reference, agreed with the Irish Government, are set out in
Annex A. These terms of reference are wide-ranging in that they cover the
whole higher education system and invite the examination of policy issues and
options in all aspects of the system including its role, strategic management
and structure, teaching and learning, research and development, investment
and financing, and international competitiveness. In particular, the review was
set in a context of the government’s strategic objective of “placing its higher
education system in the top rank of OECD in terms of both quality and levels of
participation and by the priority to create a world class research, development
and innovation capacity and infrastructure in Ireland as part of the wider EU
objective for becoming the world’s most competitive and dynamic knowledge-
based economy and society, as agreed in Lisbon” (see Annex A). The review was
asked to evaluate how well the higher education sector was meeting these
strategic objectives and to make recommendations for further progress.
To assist the review, the Department of Education and Science prepared a
very helpful Country Background Report, authored by Professor John Coolahan
(Part II of this volume). The review team is very grateful for this preparatory
work and to the authors of the 88 submissions from interested organisations
and individuals which it received. The commitment of Ireland to education
and, in this case, to higher education was overwhelmingly demonstrated
by the extent and the wide-ranging nature of advice, guidance and
recommendations to the review team contained in these submissions. This
commitment was fully matched in the sessions where oral evidence was
taken. The review team also wishes to acknowledge the professional way
in which the Department’s officials responded to its request for further
statistical and other material during and after the visit.
The Review Report refers throughout to “tertiary education” rather than
“higher education”, the term used normally in Ireland and in our terms of
reference. OECD divides tertiary education programmes into type A, which it
defines as “largely theoretically-based and designed to provide qualifications
for entry to advanced research programmes and professions with high
skill requirements” and type B which are “classified at the same level of
competencies” as type A but “are more occupationally-orientated and lead to
direct labour market access”. Type B programmes are “typically of shorter
duration… [and] … generally they are not deemed to lead to university level
degrees” (OECD, 2003a). In Ireland, the sub-degree programmes offered by the
Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the institutes of technology would
generally be described as type B while the degree programmes at both the
institutes of technology and the universities would be classified as type A.
Unless specifically stated, the Examiners’ Report does not distinguish](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3390444-250605173055-f52cc3e1/75/Download-full-ebook-of-Higher-Education-In-Ireland-Oecd-instant-download-pdf-27-2048.jpg)
![I.3. THE GOVERNANCE AND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS
REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006
45
the other demands on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s staff and
is conducted on a purely financial basis. We recommend that, except in
exceptional circumstances, HEIs be not audited directly by the Comptroller and
Auditor General but be required to have an internal audit service reporting to an
Internal Audit Committee and to employ external auditors from the private
sector whose reports would be available to the Tertiary Education Authority
which itself would employ an audit team to act on behalf of, and in consultation
with, the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Authority could then require
audited accounts earlier than is now the case (and act on them more quickly if
required) and would be in a better position to analyse them, both individually
and on a system wide basis and report accordingly to the Department and to the
Comptroller and Auditor General.
Institutional governance and management
In a period when internationally there is intense competition among
public sector agencies for resources, questions about the delivery of services
whether in health, or in education, or in welfare become paramount. In every
country, resources are finite but their investment can be enhanced or diluted
by the effectiveness or weakness of the organisations through which they are
targeted. Irish universities and institutes of technology have been transformed
through extremely rapid growth over the last 15 years but their internal
structures have not been much modified to adapt to the new pressures they
find themselves under. Their governance and management now need to be
reformed in order to be able to compete not just with one another but in
broader international settings. Fortunately the likely slow down in expansion,
if not decline, in student numbers provides the opportunity to undertake
the necessary modernisation process. This is particularly the case for the
universities where so much of the research investment must be placed if they
are to become significant vehicles for the continued development of what the
National Development Plan describes as the “knowledge-based” economy
where “intellect and innovation will determine competitive advantage…
[and to which] the accumulation of ‘knowledge-capital’ represents a key
contribution” (Government of Ireland, 1999, paragraph 6.35). We received
testimony on all sides of the culture-changing role of the PRTLI programme in
focussing institutions to make selective choices. But if this programme’s
success is to be built on effectively, the process of making decisions between
competing claims, the recognition that resources should be allocated against
potential outcomes, the construction of strategic plans that reinforce certain
academic areas at the expense of others, and the human resource policies that
reward excellence and discourage lack of performance must be reinforced.
This does not represent a case for the introduction of crude managerialism
or the elimination of collegiality but for creating the decision-making](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3390444-250605173055-f52cc3e1/75/Download-full-ebook-of-Higher-Education-In-Ireland-Oecd-instant-download-pdf-51-2048.jpg)
![social importance. And here the ties of traditional reverence and
adoration which bound Rouvke to his former employer made
themselves keenly felt in his heart. Ah, for the privilege of calling
Reb Peretz father-in-law! To think of the stir the news would make
among his townsfolk, both in Kropovetz and here in New York!
Besides, the American-born or "nearly American-born" girls inspire
him with fear. These young ladies are brought up at picnics and
balls, while to him the very thought of inviting a lady for a dance is
embarrassing. What are they good for, anyway? They look more
Christian than Jewish, and are only great hands at squandering their
husbands' money on candy, dresses, and theatres. A woman like
that would domineer over him, treat him haughtily, and generally
make life a burden to him. Hanele, dear Hanele, on the other hand,
is a true daughter of Israel. She would make a good housekeeper;
would occasionally also mind the store; would accompany him to
synagogue every Saturday; and that is just what a man like him
wants in a wife. An English-speaking Mrs. Friedman he would have
to call "darling," a word barren of any charm or meaning for his
heart, whereas Hanele he would address in the melodious terms of
"Kreinele meine! Gold meine!"[14]
Ah, the very music of these sounds
would make him cry with happiness!
The thought of a walk to synagogue with Hanele, dressed in a plush
cloak and an enormous hat, by his side, and of whispering these
words of endearment in her ear was enchanting enough; but then,
enchantment-like, the spectacle soon faded away before the hard,
retrospective fact of Rouvke, the horse-driver, in top-boots, serving
tea to Hanele, the only daughter of Reb Peretz the distiller. "Oh, it
cannot be! Feive is a greener to take such a match into his head!" he
mentally exclaimed in black despair. And forthwith he once more
sought consolation in the prospect of a marriage portion which a
New York wife would bring him, and fell to adding the probable
amount to his own future capital. Hanele will reject him? Why, so
much the better! That makes it impossible for him to commit the
folly of sacrificing at least two thousand dollars. And his spirits rose
at the narrow escape he was having from a ruinous temptation. Still,](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3390444-250605173055-f52cc3e1/75/Download-full-ebook-of-Higher-Education-In-Ireland-Oecd-instant-download-pdf-61-2048.jpg)
![there stood before him a stately, well-formed young woman of
twenty-five.
"Ha—Ha—Hanele!" he gasped out, all but melting away with
emotion, and suddenly feeling, not like Robert Friedman, but like
Rouvke Arbel.
Hanele turned her head toward him, but she did not see him. So at
least it seemed, for instead of pushing her way to the part of the
railing where he stood, she started back and obliterated herself in
the crowd.
Presently her name was called, together with other names, and she
emerged from a stream of fellow immigrants. More dead than alive,
Rouvke ran forward to meet her; but he had advanced two steps
when his legs refused to proceed, and his face became blank with
amazement. For, behold, snugly supporting Hanele's arm, there was
a young man in spectacles and in a seedy gray uniform overcoat of a
Russian collegian, with its brass buttons superseded by new ones of
black celluloid.
The pair marched up to Rouvke, she with her eyes fixed at the floor,
as she clung to her companion, and the collegian with his head
raised in timid defiance.
"How do you do, Rouven?" she began. "This is Gospodin[15]
Levinsky
—my choson. Do not take it ill, Rouven. I am not to blame, as true
as I am a child of Israel. You see, it is my Providential match, and I
could not help it," she rattled off in a trembling voice and like an
embarrassed schoolboy reciting a lesson which he has gotten well by
heart.
"I'll pay you every copeck, you can rest assured," the collegian
interposed, turning as white as a sheet. "I have a rich brother in
Buffalo."
Hanele had met the young man in the steerage of the Dutch vessel
which brought them across the ocean; and they passed a fortnight](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/3390444-250605173055-f52cc3e1/75/Download-full-ebook-of-Higher-Education-In-Ireland-Oecd-instant-download-pdf-69-2048.jpg)
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- 5. Reviews of National Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland Higher Education in Ireland «Reviewsof National Policies for Education The full text of this book is available on line via this link: http://www.sourceoecd.org/education/9264014314 Those with access to all OECD books on line should use this link: http://www.sourceoecd.org/9264014314 SourceOECD is the OECD’s online library of books, periodicals and statistical databases. For more information about this award-winning service and free trials ask your librarian, or write to us at [email protected]. Ireland was one of the first European countries to grasp the economic importance of education. But higher education in Ireland is now at a crossroads, with significant challenges to overcome. How can Ireland meet its stated objective of “placing its higher education system in the top ranks of OECD member countries in terms of both quality and levels of participation”? How can it create “a world class research, development and innovation capacity”? High levels of investment are needed for a major expansion of postgraduate studies and capacity for research, development and innovation. Mechanisms should be established to achieve the right balance between different components of the tertiary education system, which includes universities, institutes of technology and colleges that provide post-secondary level instruction. Further, there is a need to meet the demands of specialisation, competition and complementarities within the system. This report addresses the full range of higher education issues and offers recommendations for action within the framework of the government’s ambitions for the sector. The examiners propose a new National Council for Tertiary Education, Research and Innovation and recommend significant modernisation and adaptation in the governance and management practices of tertiary education institutions. Finally, the examiners conclude that the government’s ambitions for the higher education sector – especially its role in sustaining a highly innovative economy for Ireland – will require considerable further investment, and they suggest policy approaches to developing these additional sources of funding. Reviews of National Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland ISBN 92-64-01431-4 91 2006 02 1 P -:HSTCQE=UVYXVW: www.oecd.org 912006021cov.indd 1 20-Nov-2006 4:20:40 PM
- 7. Reviews of NationalPolicies for Education Higher Education in Ireland ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT
- 8. ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMICCO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT The OECD is a unique forum where the governments of 30 democracies work together to address the economic, social and environmental challenges of globalisation. The OECD is also at the forefront of efforts to understand and to help governments respond to new developments and concerns, such as corporate governance, the information economy and the challenges of an ageing population. The Organisation provides a setting where governments can compare policy experiences, seek answers to common problems, identify good practice and work to co-ordinate domestic and international policies. The OECD member countries are: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, the Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Commission of the European Communities takes part in the work of the OECD. OECD Publishing disseminates widely the results of the Organisation’s statistics gathering and research on economic, social and environmental issues, as well as the conventions, guidelines and standards agreed by its members. Also available in French under the title: Examens des politiques nationales d’éducation L’enseignement supérieur en Irlande © OECD 2006 No reproduction, copy, transmission or translation of this publication may be made without written permission. Applications should be sent to OECD Publishing: [email protected] or by fax (33 1) 45 24 13 91. Permission to photocopy a portion of this work should be addressed to the Centre français d'exploitation du droit de copie, 20, rue des Grands-Augustins, 75006 Paris, France ([email protected]). This work is published on the responsibility of the Secretary-General of the OECD. The opinions expressed and arguments employed herein do not necessarily reflect the official views of the Organisation or of the governments of its member countries.
- 9. FOREWORD REVIEWS OF NATIONALPOLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 3 Foreword OECD Reviews of National Policies for Education, conducted by the Education Committee, provide a means for member countries to engage their peers in examining education policy issues. In 2003, Ireland’s higher education policy was reviewed by the Committee at the request of Irish authorities. The review came at a time when the Irish Government had fixed the strategic objectives of “placing its higher education system in the top ranks of OECD in terms of both quality and levels of participation” and “creating a world class research, development and innovation capacity”. These two objectives served to frame the terms of reference for the review (see Annex A). Part I of the review consists of the report of OECD examiners. Drawing on the Country Background Report prepared by Irish authorities and other inputs, the Examiners’ Report analyses the main challenges facing Ireland’s higher education system. It recommends a series of actions structured around five themes: strategic steering of the tertiary education system; governance and management of higher education institutions; strategic management of research, R&D and innovation; access and participation; and investment in the tertiary sector. Chapter 1 examines the context and terms of reference of this review, complemented by a brief historical overview and international comparisons. Chapter 2 analyses the structure of the Irish tertiary education system and identifies the need for a unified concept. Chapter 3 looks at problems in governance and management and recommends change in several areas. Chapter 4 examines the issue of widening participation and lifelong learning, with special attention to provision for adult, part- time and disabled students and recruitment of foreign students. Chapter 5 deals with investment in research and development. Chapter 6 examines strategic management of the sector, particularly the complementary roles of universities and institutes of technology. Chapter 7 discusses the need for larger investment in the tertiary education sector and recommends increased student contributions to the cost of education. Chapter 8, the final chapter of the Examiners’ Report, summarises the main conclusions and lists all the recommendations made in Chapters 2 to 7. The members of the team of examiners were Michael Shattock (UK), who served as rapporteur, Karsten Brenner (Germany), John Dawkins (Australia), Bénédicte Gendron (France), Aims McGuiness (USA), Jo Ritzen (Netherlands) and Abrar Hasan (OECD), who also co-ordinated the publication. Susan Copeland provided editorial assistance and Noëleen El Hachem was responsible for administration.
- 11. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 5 Table of Contents Executive Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Part I Examiners’ Report Chapter 1. Context and International Comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 The role of tertiary education in Ireland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 International comparisons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 National expenditure on education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Institutional funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Chapter 2. A Crossroads in the Development of Irish Tertiary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 The structure of the Irish tertiary education system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35 The diversity of the system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 The lack of a unified concept of a tertiary education system . . . . . . . 37 A Tertiary Education Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Chapter 3. The Governance and Management of Irish Tertiary Education Institutions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Changes required to the financial environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42 Institutional governance and management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Chapter 4. Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 The need for renewed action by HEIs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Part-time education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 HEA projections of future student populations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
- 12. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 6 Credit transfer and the Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning (APEL). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Retention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 The international dimension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Chapter 5. Research, R&D and Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 The distinctive roles of institutes of technology and universities in research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 Co-ordination of research, research infrastructure and capital funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The need for continuous investment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 Postgraduate numbers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 The organisational structure for research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 Chapter 6. The Strategic Management of the Irish Tertiary Education System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73 The structure of the proposed Tertiary Education Authority . . . . . . . 74 The formulation of a national strategy towards tertiary education and innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 Institutional strategy and performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Investment and funding policies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 The provision of national tertiary education statistics. . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Chapter 7. The Need for Further Investment in Irish Tertiary Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Reintroduction of fees . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88 Student finance system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89 The way forward. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90 Recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92 Chapter 8. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 The institutional base . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94 Research and innovation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96 Complete list of recommendations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
- 13. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 7 Part II Country Background Report Chapter 9. Ireland in Brief . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105 Historical overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Main executive and legislative bodies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Some population trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111 Religious affiliations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113 Official and minority languages. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114 Economic and labour market trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Aspects of social change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119 Chapter 10. Education System and Policy. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 A positive education tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 Administration and shaping of the modern education system . . . . . 123 Preparing Irish education for the knowledge society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128 Key educational policy aims . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Trends in educational funding . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132 Evaluation and standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133 Structure and administration of higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134 Adult education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Third-level colleges other than universities and institutes of technology. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146 Chapter 11. Recent Reform and Legislative Framework in Higher Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147 Background to reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 Goals and process of reform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148 The Universities Act, 1997 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150 Development of the non-university sector. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151 Toward a National Framework of Qualifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 Changing research policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157 Chapter 12. The University System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159 History and development of the university . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160 Changing character of university life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168 Developing roles of the university . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170 Management and administration changes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 Research trends and challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
- 14. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 8 Funding of universities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 174 Shaping a quality university culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Chapter 13. The Institutes of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 Origin of the regional technical colleges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180 The development of the regional technical colleges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 Towards a new legislative framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 185 Indicators of the success of the RTCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 The Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Management systems of the institutes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191 Chapter 14. Provision in Higher Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Mode of student selection into higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Patterns of student participation and course provision . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Demand-supply ratio by subject area, 1991-2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 Student graduation and retention patterns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 203 Participation by disadvantaged students . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 Student exchanges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206 Student services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207 Teaching and learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208 Higher education and the concept of lifelong learning . . . . . . . . . . . . 210 Graduate placement. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211 Expenditure on third-level student supports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 215 Chapter 15. Some Contemporary Issues and Challenges . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 218 Financing issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219 Research issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 Framework and governance issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231 Lifelong learning and higher education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 Quality assurance and quality improvement issues. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 240 The international challenge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249 References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 249
- 15. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 9 Annex A. Terms of Reference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251 Annex B. Submissions to the OECD Review of Higher Education in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253 Annex C. Programme of Evidence Taking and Visits Undertaken by the Review Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 Annex D. Documentation Supplied to the Review by the Department of Education and Science . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258 Annex E. List of Acronyms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 261 Tables 1.1. Population that has attained at least upper secondary education (2002). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 1.2. Population that has attained tertiary education (2002) . . . . . . . . . . 26 1.3. Net entry rates into tertiary education (2002) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 1.4. Expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP for all levels of education (2001) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 1.5. Expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP by level of education (1995, 2001) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 1.6. Sources of funding for universities, 2001/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 1.7. R&D expenditure in Ireland as a percentage of GDP, 2001. . . . . . . . 30 5.1. Public funding of R&D in Ireland, National Development Plan Estimate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 12.1. Growth in university full-time student numbers 1965-2003 . . . . . . 169 13.1. Growth in full-time student numbers at RTCs, 1970-74 . . . . . . . . . 183 13.2. Full-time student enrolment in the RTCs/institutes of technology, 1980-2001. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 13.3. Percentages of students at different levels of study in the DIT, 2001 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 190 13.4. Proportion of full-time students by field of study in DIT, 2001. . . . 190 14.1. Full-time enrolments in institutions aided by the state, 1991/92, 1996/97 and 2001/02. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 14.2. Number of students enrolled in third-level courses in institutions aided by the Department of Education and Science in 2001/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196 14.3. Full-time enrolments in HEA institutions by level of study 1991/92, 1996/97 and 2001/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197 14.4. All full-time undergraduate students by field of study in 1991/92 and 2001/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 198 14.5. All full-time postgraduate students by field of study in 1991/92 and 2001/02 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199 14.6. Part-time enrolments in HEA institutions by level of study in 1991/92 and 2001/02. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
- 16. TABLE OF CONTENTS REVIEWSOF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 10 14.7. Levels of study in the institutes of technology (including DIT and TRBDI) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 14.8. Full-time students by field of study in the institute of technology sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 14.9. Provision of courses by discipline in institute of technology sector . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200 14.10. Full-time undergraduate students by faculty in DIT, 2002/03. . . . . 201 14.11. Postgraduate students by faculty in DIT, 2002/03 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201 14.12. Demand/supply ratio by subject area and award level . . . . . . . . . . 202 14.13. Destination of degree graduates in 2000, a year following graduation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 14.14. Destination of sub-degree graduates in 2000, a year following graduation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212 14.15. Expenditure on third-level student supports in 2002. . . . . . . . . . . . 213 14.16. Fees as a percentage of the unit cost by field of study. . . . . . . . . . . 214 15.1. Gross expenditure on third-level education, 1995-2004 (est.) . . . . . 220 15.2. Research funding to the higher education sector, 2000-June 2002 . . 227 15.3. GERD as a % of GDP in Ireland and some other countries. . . . . . . . 229 15.4. Universities: composition of governing authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236 Figures 6.1. The proposed Tertiary Education Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75 6.2. The proposed national structure for the governance and strategic management of tertiary education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 6.3. The allocation of recurrent resources to tertiary education institutions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83 10.1. Education System in Ireland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 14.1. Estimated percentage of age cohort entering higher education by socio-economic status, 1998 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
- 17. ISBN 92-64-01431-4 Reviews ofNational Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland © OECD 2006 11 Executive Summary
- 18. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REVIEWS OFNATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 12 The Irish tertiary education system has increased its student body by about 2% per annum since the mid-1960s and has reached an age participation rate of 57%. The system, however, is at a crossroads at it strives to meet the government’s strategic objectives of “placing its higher education system in the top ranks of OECD in terms of both quality and levels of participation” and “creating a world class research, development and innovation capacity”. These two objectives served to frame the terms of reference for the Education Committee’s review of Ireland’s higher education system (see Annex A). The Examiners’ Report (Part I of this volume) provides analysis of the main challenges and recommends a series of actions, structured around the following five central themes: ● Strategic steering of the tertiary education system. ● Governance and management of higher education institutions. ● Strategic management of research, R&D and innovation. ● Access and participation. ● Investment in the tertiary sector. The Examiners’ Report draws upon the Country Background Report prepared by the Irish authorities (Part II of this volume), 85 public submissions prepared by various stakeholder groups and organisations, and the review team’s visits with different stakeholder groups during its two-week stay in Ireland. Strategic steering of the system The Examiners’ Report points out that Ireland lacks a unified strategy for its tertiary education system. To address this deficiency, it recommends bringing together the universities and the institutes of technology in a strategic framework, with clear differentiation of roles between the two, under a new Tertiary Education Authority. Ireland’s wish to become an innovation-based, technology-generating economy means that the tertiary education sector needs to act as a key driver of this process. However, public policy is diffused over several government departments and there is no mechanism to provide strategic guidance for the sector. There is a need for an effective co-ordinating mechanism to link national priorities across government departments for issues related to qualified personnel and funding
- 19. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REVIEWS OFNATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 13 for institutional infrastructures, research, R&D and innovation. The examiners propose a new National Council for Tertiary Education, Research and Innovation, which would bring together all relevant government departments to determine a rolling national strategic agenda for tertiary education and strengthen its relationship with innovation, skills, and the economy. Governance and management of higher education institutions In parallel with changes in the tertiary education system, significant modernisation and adaptation are needed in governance and management of Ireland’s higher education institutions (HEI). Within the broader national goals, institutions need to achieve greater strategic focus. This will require action in areas such as governance practices and leadership. The government needs to offer HEIs greater autonomy to manage themselves within the framework of national objectives. Consistent with these objectives, management of institutions must be modernised. The Examiners’ Report identifies deficiencies in prevailing arrangements in these areas and offers a range of recommendations. To link institutions more closely to a national strategy and to improve accountability, the examiners recommend the use of annually renewable contracts for institutions through the proposed Tertiary Education Authority (TEA). The examiners also recommend changes to the size, function and representation of universities’ governing boards to make them more manageable and accountable to the public, and more focused on strategic issues. For the institutes of technology, they recommend separating the role of the governing body, which should focus on strategic issues, from the managerial responsibility of the institute’s director or president. They offer a number of proposals to lighten the administrative burden on institutions, increase autonomy and provide greater room for modernised management. These include a reasonably secure environment for financial planning (including multi-year funding); arrangements for generating and retaining surpluses; and changes in “core” grant arrangements to provide for long-term maintenance of facilities and buildings. The examiners also recommend linking resource allocation within institutions more closely to their strategic plans through more transparent mechanisms that offer performance incentives. Strategic management for research, R&D and innovation The period from 1996 to 2002 saw the most dramatic increase in research funding in Ireland’s history. The operation of the Programme for Research in
- 20. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REVIEWS OFNATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 14 Third-Level Institutions (PRTLI), with its allocation of significant research funding from 1998 on, is widely believed to have changed the research culture in Ireland. But if the Lisbon target of 3% of GDP is to be met, both industry, which is lagging significantly, and government will need to invest much more. In addition, a number of structural and institutional changes are needed to make most effective use of these resources. The Examiners’ Report discusses the main institutional adaptations required to make investment more effective and recommends several policy actions. The Irish higher education system is weak in graduate studies and research and also in links between R&D and innovation. Industrial investment in R&D is low; indigenous industry accounts for only one-third. The primary objective of the examiners’ recommendations in this area is to integrate research, R&D and innovation within the broader strategic framework of tertiary education and economic and regional policy. Key features of the recommendations include maintaining the distinctive roles of the institutes of technology and the universities in research; rationalising the many agencies responsible for research funding by establishing a major national research funding body analogous to the US National Science Foundation; creating a Committee for Research Policy and a Chief Science Policy Adviser to better co-ordinate funding and direction of research; and investing significantly more in postgraduate support with a view to more than doubling the number of doctoral candidates by 2010. At only 5%, the proportion of international to home/EU students is low. As one step towards strengthening its doctoral programmes, Ireland should seek to double its international student population in the next five years. Subsequent to the initial drafting of the Examiners’ Report, a Chief Science Adviser was appointed. But the examiners note that he does not appear to have the co-ordinating powers proposed in the Examiners’ Report, nor does the Committee for Research Policy have the strategic role recommended. Access and participation A great strength of Ireland’s tertiary education system is how it has expanded student numbers while preserving quality. However, this expansion has taken place almost entirely among 18-to-21-year-olds and the beneficiaries have been drawn disproportionately from managerial and professional classes. Unless action is taken, current forecasts of a continued rise in the age participation rate will further entrench participation among the middle and upper classes. Both social equity and economic arguments point to the need for renewed efforts to broaden participation in tertiary education. The Examiners’ Report makes several recommendations to improve access for disadvantaged groups and adults.
- 21. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REVIEWS OFNATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 15 Over the longer term, efforts to improve participation by students from disadvantaged backgrounds will require investment in pre-school and primary education. Strengthening career guidance and counselling in schools can also help. Steps should be taken to implement more fully the recommendations of the Commission on the Points System. Through adjustments in the funding formula for institutions, financial incentives can be provided to recognise additional costs of recruiting and retaining students from disadvantaged backgrounds. To increase access for adults, efforts are needed to increase the number of part-time students. One possible approach is to eliminate the distinction between part-time and full-time students in determining if fees must be paid or maintenance support will be granted. Arrangements could be made to include part-time students, on a pro rata basis to full-time, in the calculation of recurrent grants. Steps are also needed to generate greater demand for lifelong learning. Investment in the tertiary sector Considerable further investment will be necessary to achieve the government’s ambitions for the tertiary education sector, especially its role in sustaining a highly innovative economy for Ireland. Failure to invest further in the tertiary education system will put at risk its contribution to strengthening the knowledge economy and fully realising the climate of innovation which Ireland is keen to create. The system faces investment demands for a number of reasons: continued expansion in participation in tertiary education (despite downward demographic trends); research infrastructure; new buildings and maintenance backlogs; rationalisation and modernisation; and to meet objectives of widened participation, improved retention and greater support for lifelong learning. However, Ireland’s education budget must compete with many other demands on the public purse. Within the education envelope, there is little scope for increased funding of tertiary education, as other education spending in Ireland is below the OECD average. Student contributions are one possible source of additional resources for tertiary education. Data point to large private gains for beneficiaries of tertiary education and a part of the enhanced income potential could form the basis of students’ contributions. The examiners do not think that this conflicts with the need to widen participation, as the 1995 abolition of fees has had no noticeable impact on trends in the socio-economic make-up of the student cohort. A suitably constructed policy can increase rather than lessen social equity. For such a policy to be effective, however, the government needs to introduce means-testing mechanisms, along the lines of the de Buitleir report on student maintenance. It must also ensure that contributions from
- 22. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY REVIEWS OFNATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 16 students become a net additional resource for the sector and are not used to offset reductions from the public contribution. Dispensing with the “free fees” policy clearly represents a sensitive and controversial political decision. The examiners believe, however, that if the “free fees” policy remains in place, there must be serious doubts as to whether it is practicable for state funding to meet the demand for additional investment that Ireland’s tertiary education system requires.
- 23. REVIEWS OF NATIONALPOLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 PART I Examiners’ Report
- 25. ISBN 92-64-01431-4 Reviews ofNational Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland © OECD 2006 19 PART I Chapter 1 Context and International Comparisons This chapter describes the context and terms of reference of the review of tertiary education in Ireland. It contains a brief overview of the Irish tertiary education system and some international comparisons.
- 26. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 20 Introduction The review was undertaken at the request of the Irish Government as part of the programme of OECD Education Committee policy reviews. The team of examiners comprised: ● Karsten Brenner (Germany), former Director General, German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. ● John Dawkins (Australia), Chairman of Elders Rural Bank and Law Central Ltd., and former Minister for Employment, Education and Training, and Minister for Finance, Australia. ● Bénédicte Gendron (France), Pr. Dr., University of Montpellier III; Researcher at the Centre for Research in Education, Training and Teaching of Montpellier III; and Associate Researcher at the Regional Centre of the French Centre for Research on Education, Training and Employment of Ile-de-France, Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. ● Abrar Hasan, Head of Education and Training Policy Division, Directorate for Education, OECD. ● Aims McGuiness (USA), Senior Associate, National Centre for Higher Education Management, Boulder, Colorado. ● Jo Ritzen (Netherlands), President of Maastricht University, and former Minister of Education, Culture and Science, the Netherlands. ● Michael Shattock (UK), Rapporteur, Visiting Professor, Institute of Education, University of London. The team visited Ireland from 15 to 27 February 2004 and met representatives of the Irish Government from the ministries of Education and Science; Finance and Enterprise; and Trade and Employment. It also met with members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Science, the Higher Education Authority (HEA), the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU), the Council of Directors of Institutes of Technology, representatives of research councils, Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and other research funding agencies, educational qualification bodies, trade unions, the Union of Students in Ireland, and other organisations. It also visited three universities (University College Dublin, University College Cork and University of Limerick) and four institutes of technology (Tallaght, Waterford, Cork and Tralee). It received 88 separate submissions from organisations and individuals (see Annex B). The
- 27. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 21 full programme of evidence taking and visits prepared by the Department of Education and Science is given in Annex C. The Terms of Reference, agreed with the Irish Government, are set out in Annex A. These terms of reference are wide-ranging in that they cover the whole higher education system and invite the examination of policy issues and options in all aspects of the system including its role, strategic management and structure, teaching and learning, research and development, investment and financing, and international competitiveness. In particular, the review was set in a context of the government’s strategic objective of “placing its higher education system in the top rank of OECD in terms of both quality and levels of participation and by the priority to create a world class research, development and innovation capacity and infrastructure in Ireland as part of the wider EU objective for becoming the world’s most competitive and dynamic knowledge- based economy and society, as agreed in Lisbon” (see Annex A). The review was asked to evaluate how well the higher education sector was meeting these strategic objectives and to make recommendations for further progress. To assist the review, the Department of Education and Science prepared a very helpful Country Background Report, authored by Professor John Coolahan (Part II of this volume). The review team is very grateful for this preparatory work and to the authors of the 88 submissions from interested organisations and individuals which it received. The commitment of Ireland to education and, in this case, to higher education was overwhelmingly demonstrated by the extent and the wide-ranging nature of advice, guidance and recommendations to the review team contained in these submissions. This commitment was fully matched in the sessions where oral evidence was taken. The review team also wishes to acknowledge the professional way in which the Department’s officials responded to its request for further statistical and other material during and after the visit. The Review Report refers throughout to “tertiary education” rather than “higher education”, the term used normally in Ireland and in our terms of reference. OECD divides tertiary education programmes into type A, which it defines as “largely theoretically-based and designed to provide qualifications for entry to advanced research programmes and professions with high skill requirements” and type B which are “classified at the same level of competencies” as type A but “are more occupationally-orientated and lead to direct labour market access”. Type B programmes are “typically of shorter duration… [and] … generally they are not deemed to lead to university level degrees” (OECD, 2003a). In Ireland, the sub-degree programmes offered by the Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) and the institutes of technology would generally be described as type B while the degree programmes at both the institutes of technology and the universities would be classified as type A. Unless specifically stated, the Examiners’ Report does not distinguish
- 28. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 22 between type A and type B programmes. The report does, however, retain the acronym HEI to describe higher education institutions as being the most easily internationally recognised shorthand for referring to universities and institutes of technology together. The role of tertiary education in Ireland The main objectives of higher education policy in Ireland were set out in the Country Background Report as follows: ● Promotion of the responsiveness of higher education to the needs of society and the economy. ● Expansion of access to higher education for disadvantaged groups and mature students. ● Achieving standards of excellence in teaching and learning. ● Expansion of research activity of international quality. ● Achievement of quality assurance procedures which are effective and transparent. ● Adoption of lifelong learning as a planning motif in higher education. ● Development of innovative models of course delivery, using ICT resources. ● Improvement of governance and accountability procedures within the institutions. ● Promotion of higher education in addressing regional issues. ● Engagement with the “Lisbon” objectives in the promotion of the “role of universities in the Europe of Knowledge”. These objectives are not fundamentally different from those of most OECD countries, but our review suggests that they are being realised with varying degrees of success. The growth in tertiary education in Ireland has been extraordinary, with the age participation rate rising from 11% in 1965 to an estimated 57% in 2003, and numbers rising from about 21 000 in 1965 to over 137 000 by 2003 (data provided by the Department of Education and Science, Ireland). Ireland was one of the first European countries to grasp the economic importance of education and economists suggest that this up-skilling of the labour force accounts for almost 1% per annum of additional national output over the last decade or so. The growth of tertiary education has been accompanied by a two-and-a-half-fold improvement in average material living standards. There is general agreement among representatives of government and of tertiary education that the expansion has been enormously beneficial both to Irish society and to the economy. Irish tertiary education also includes a small private sector which flourishes mainly in Dublin. The part-time degree
- 29. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 23 programmes run by the National College of Ireland represent a significant contribution to the national numbers of part-time students and reflect the strong demand for part-time vocational programmes in the Greater Dublin area. Investment in research came much later than the increases in first degree numbers and began with the establishment of the Programme for Research in Third Level Institutions (PRTLI) in 1998. The success of this programme has created a consensus that investment in research carried out in higher education institutions (HEIs) is a critical element in achieving and sustaining a knowledge- based society with a high capacity for innovation which is at the centre of Ireland’s strategy for economic development. However, a great deal more needs to be done both in terms of the size of the investment necessary and the organisational context before the research objective can be said to be met. Claims that Ireland is already “world class” in research in some areas may be justified but the overall research environment is not yet adequate to support the achievement of research of international quality in the range of fields necessary to promote the economic development that Ireland is looking for. This common understanding and commitment to the social and economic role of tertiary education between HEI leaders and government makes Ireland distinctive amongst European countries and is a source of great strength. Ireland’s remarkable economic growth, averaging over 9% per annum from 1997 to 2000 inclusive, is seen as being fuelled by the expansion in the output of high quality graduates in the labour market. But one of the consequences has been a high-income society which needs to be even more competitive internationally if it is to continue to forge ahead in a period of slower economic growth. Over 90% of the expansion has been generated from the 18-to-20-year-old cohort and has been drawn primarily, as in most European countries, from the professional and managerial classes. Lifelong learning, widening participation and the encouragement of mature students to enter tertiary education have not been given such emphasis and must be reinforced in future if Ireland is to capitalise on its success over the last decade. The National Development Plan sets as a priority the “continued investment in education and training and, in particular, through developing a strategic vision for lifelong learning” (Government of Ireland, 1999, paragraph 5.21). A further and important element in the role of tertiary education relates to regional policy. There are considerable disparities in economic activity, personal wealth and educational attainment between Ireland’s regions which the National Spatial Strategy is designed to address. The employment participation rate varies significantly, for example, between the Greater Dublin Region and the Border Midlands and West regions. Sixty-two per cent of net new jobs which employers are expected to create in 2010 are estimated to be likely to require third-level education, compared with less than 30% of existing jobs in 2001. The current level of 66% in the South-East, South-West and Mid-West and Greater
- 30. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 24 Dublin Regions compares with only 56% in the Border, Midlands and West Regions (FÁS/ESRI, 2004). A major challenge of the Spatial Strategy is to have all of Ireland identified with major technological innovation and the discussion document Higher Education and the National Spatial Strategy (McDonagh, 2003) identifies how HEIs are located in relation to regional gateways. In particular, it identifies not only the critical role of HEIs in regional economic development but also the importance of the network of institutes of technology as a major infrastructural asset because of their emphasis on technology and applied knowledge and their role in the provision of skills based education. (They carry the main responsibility for skills-based education and training in the construction industry, hospitality/tourism, the digital content industry and arts and crafts.) This regional aspect adds a further dimension to the role of tertiary education in Ireland and requires that it should be given greater emphasis in any statement of objectives. But the situation is complicated by the fact that while Dublin provides 60% of all first-degree places nationally, it has itself the lowest age participation rate in tertiary education, with the rate in central Dublin estimated at no more than 16%. This further emphasises the importance of giving high priority to lifelong learning, widening participation and encouraging mature students. The importance of tertiary education to Ireland’s economic and social development should not obscure its role in the intellectual and artistic life of the nation and the contribution it makes to citizenship and the civil society. Paragraphs 12 and 14 of the 1997 Universities Act set out admirably the objectives of a university but these statements need to be brought together with the much more instrumental wording of the functions of the institutes of technology as set out in paragraph 5 the 1992 Regional Technical Colleges Act so that while the different roles of the two kinds of HEIs are recognised, the important and diverse roles of the institutes of technology are more fully stated along with the safeguards to academic freedom accorded to university staff. Tertiary education needs to be seen as a unity with different kinds of institutions fulfilling different roles but contributing together to sustain Ireland as the vibrant innovative society it has become. We note that the international context is not included in the list of objectives and this is reflected in the relatively modest number of non-EU students which Ireland attracts to its HEIs. We believe this is a weakness for a country which at a governmental level plays such an important international role. Quite apart from the intrinsic value of having a mix of international students, Ireland is failing to attract research students from overseas who could contribute to the research agenda. We therefore urge in the recommendations below that steps be taken to promote the recruitment of an increased number of international students and that this be incorporated into the main policy objectives.
- 31. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 25 International comparisons The national economy From the early 1990s, Ireland has experienced a period of unprecedented economic growth: between 1990 and 1995 the average annual growth rate was 4.78% and between 1995 to 2000 it rose to 9.5% per annum, bringing with it far-reaching social change (Coolahan, 2004). The Gross Domestic Product increased by 59.8% in real terms in the second half of the decade, well ahead of the European trend of 15.7% (for EU) and the OECD country trend of 18.7%. While the growth rate fell sharply after 2000, at 4.8% per annum for 2001-03, it is still much higher than the EU average of 1.0% and the OECD average of 1.6% and is forecast to continue around this level (OECD, 2004a). Ireland is one of the most productive economies with its GDP per capita ranked sixth amongst OECD member countries. Unemployment remains low although it has increased from 4.3% in 2000 to 5.2% in 2003 (Coolahan, 2004). This growing wealth has not, however, been spread evenly and overcoming economic and social disadvantage remains an issue which is high on the political agenda and which education has an important role in addressing. Educational participation rates Participation in and completion of upper secondary education as a basis for entering tertiary education has risen phenomenally during the last four decades: The first EU Education Report, Progress towards the common objectives in education and training, suggests that in 2002 85.6% of 22 year olds in Ireland had completed upper secondary education as compared to 75.4% across the EU Table 1.1. Population that has attained at least upper secondary education1 (2002) Percentage, by age group 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 25-64 Ireland 77 65 51 37 60 Denmark 85 81 80 72 80 France 79 68 60 48 65 Germany 85 86 84 77 83 Sweden 91 87 79 67 82 Switzerland 88 85 80 75 82 United Kingdom 70 65 62 56 64 United States 87 88 89 84 87 OECD mean 75 69 61 50 65 EU mean 75 68 60 49 64 1. The average of EU member countries whose data are available from EAG 2004. Source: Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, Table A2.2 (OECD, 2004b).
- 32. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 26 (CEC, 2004). Participation in and completion of tertiary education have increased significantly to reach 26%, surpassing the OECD average of 24% (Table 1.2). If Tertiary A and B type programmes are counted together, the share of the 25-34 year olds completing tertiary education amounts to 37%, as compared to an OECD average of 28%. By 2002 net entry rates into tertiary education Type A programmes had reached 39% of the age cohort (34% men: 43% women) compared to the average for OECD countries of 42% (Table 1.3). If tertiary sector Type B courses are included, the ratio rises to 57% of the age cohort (51% men: 61% women) as compared to 67% OECD-wide. In 2002, 36 500 students entered higher education through the Central Application System, 90% of them in the 17-to-19 age group. The proportion of mature students entering higher education is extremely low: in 1997 the proportion of new entrants into university-level education aged 26 was only 2.3% as compared to over 19.3% in OECD as a whole. Despite the great expansion in student numbers and the introduction of student grant schemes in 1968, great disparities continued to exist in the participation of students from families of different socio-economic status. This did not change significantly after the abolition of tuition fees for undergraduate studies in 1995/96; the take-up rate in higher education remained highly dependent on socio-economic background. While individual universities are making efforts to redress the balance, it is the case that students from disadvantaged backgrounds find their way more easily to and through the institutes of technology. Failure rates in the first years of study in the institute of Table 1.2. Population that has attained tertiary education (2002) Percentage, by age group Tertiary Type B Tertiary Type A and advanced research programmes 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 25-64 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 25-64 Ireland 14 10 7 5 10 23 15 12 9 16 Denmark 6 6 5 4 5 23 24 25 18 23 France 17 12 9 6 12 19 11 10 9 12 Germany 8 11 11 10 10 13 15 14 11 13 Sweden 17 18 14 10 15 22 16 17 16 18 Switzerland 10 10 9 7 9 17 17 16 14 16 United Kingdom 8 9 8 7 8 23 18 18 13 19 United States 9 10 10 7 9 31 29 30 26 29 OECD mean 9 8 7 5 8 19 16 14 11 16 EU mean1 10 9 7 6 8 17 14 13 10 14 1. The average of EU member countries whose data are available from EAG 2004. Source: Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, Table A3.3 (OECD, 2004b).
- 33. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 27 technology sector are, however, relatively high and considerably higher than in the universities. Completion rates differ very much between sectors. They are comparatively high at universities: according to an HEA study of 2001, 83.2% obtained the degree on the course on which they had initially embarked and the drop-out rate from universities seems to be only 10% (Morgan, Flanagan and Kellaghan, 2001). Non-completion is significantly higher at the institutes of technology where about one-third of students leave without finishing their courses successfully. The institutes, however, take more young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and failure is highest in the first year of study at certificate and diploma level (Coolahan, 2004). Like other countries, Ireland is concerned about meeting the demand for graduates in the fields of science, technology and engineering. According to the EU Education Report, however, Ireland has a much higher proportion of graduates in mathematics, science and technology per 1 000 inhabitants in the 2-to-29 age group, 23.2%, than the EU average 9.3% (CEC, 2004). National expenditure on education Total national (public and private) expenditure on education reached EUR 6.0 billion in 2003, a considerable growth over the EUR 1.74 billion expenditure in 1990. This is equivalent to 4.44% of GDP (Coolahan, 2004). Investment in tertiary education stands at some EUR 1.44 billion in 2004 (data provided by the Department of Education and Science, Ireland). Ireland’s expenditure on education and on tertiary education in 2001, as compared to a selected number of OECD countries, is shown in Table 1.4. Table 1.3. Net entry rates into tertiary education (2002) Tertiary Type B Tertiary Type A M + F Males Females M + F Males Females Ireland1 18 17 18 39 34 43 Denmark 12 14 11 50 38 62 France 22 22 22 37 30 45 Germany2 15 10 19 35 35 35 Sweden 6 6 6 75 59 92 Switzerland 14 16 12 35 37 32 United Kingdom 27 23 30 47 43 51 United States3 – – – 64 60 68 OECD mean 16 14 18 51 45 55 EU mean4 12 12 14 49 42 53 1. Full-time entrants only. 2. Entry rate for tertiary-Type B programmes calculated as gross entry rate. 3. Data on tertiary Type B are included in the data on tertiary Type A. 4. The average of EU member countries whose data are available from OECD EAG 2004. Source: Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, Table C2.1 (OECD, 2004b).
- 34. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 28 Thus, Ireland’s investment in its education system as a whole is lower than the OECD average. In public expenditure it ranks only 25th out of 30 OECD countries and with private expenditure added to public, 23rd out of 27 countries for which data are available (OECD, 2004b). Public expenditure has declined from 4.7% to 4.1% as a proportion of a rapidly growing GDP between 1995 and 2000. As shown in Table 1.5, investment in tertiary education, at 1.3% of GDP, is slightly below the average of 1.4% and its share of GDP stayed constant at 1.3% in the period of rapid GDP growth from 1995 to 2000. Its investment in 2001 put it 8th out of 26 in the OECD tables. This relatively high level of investment in tertiary education represents the effect of a strong increase in expenditure, along with a doubling of student numbers between 1995 and 2000 compared to an increase of 39% in expenditure on education in general. But this expenditure performance needs to be compared with other high spending states on tertiary education within OECD, notably the USA and South Korea with 2.7% of GDP, Canada 2.5%, Denmark 1.8%, Finland and Sweden 1.7% and Australia 1.5%. By comparison, Ireland is significantly below the international average when it comes to elementary, primary and secondary education. Expenditure per student in tertiary education amounted to USD 10 003 in 2001 (OECD, 2004b, Table B1.1) slightly below the OECD average of USD 10 052, with Ireland ranking 14th amongst 26 countries. The EU Education Report 2004 gives the following figures: Ireland EUR 9 900 as against the EU average of EUR 8 200 with Ireland ranking 5th out of 15. For cumulative expenditure per Table 1.4. Expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP for all levels of education (2001) Public1 Private2 Total Ireland3 4.1 0.3 4.5 Denmark4 6.8 0.3 7.1 France 5.6 0.4 6.0 Germany 4.3 1.0 5.3 Sweden 6.3 0.2 6.5 Switzerland 5.4 m m United Kingdom 4.7 0.8 5.5 United States 5.1 2.3 7.3 OECD mean 5.0 0.7 5.6 EU mean5 5.0 0.4 5.3 “m” indicates that data are missing. 1. Including public subsidies to households attributable for educational institutions. Including direct expenditure on educational institutions from international sources. 2. Net of public subsidies attributable for educational institutions. 3. In 2001, GDP was almost 20% larger than GNP in Ireland; this figure represents 4.88% of Irish GNP. 4. Public subsidies to households not included in public expenditure, but in private expenditure. 5. The average of EU member countries whose data are available from EAG 2004. Source: Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, Table B2.1a (OECD, 2004b).
- 35. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 29 student over the average duration of tertiary studies, Ireland ranks 13th out of 27 with a figure of USD 32 411 compared to USD 42 906 as the OECD average. This is mainly due to Ireland’s shorter than average period of study. The increase of government expenditure on Irish tertiary education between 1995 and 2000 (87%) has been significantly higher than the growth of student numbers (26%) and expenditure per student has risen by 14.8% (data supplied by the Department of Education and Science Ireland) although the FGS study, The Future Funding of the Irish University Sector, commissioned by the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU), claims that direct state support per student in the university sector fell by EUR 1 240 (at 2002 prices) between 1995 and 2001 (FGS Consulting for CHIU, 2003). In the last two years, the trend of public funding for higher education institutions has turned downwards. According to CHIU’s estimates there was a reduction (in real terms) of 4% in 2003 and 10% in 2004. Table 1.5. Expenditure on educational institutions as a percentage of GDP by level of education (1995, 2001) Primary, secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education Tertiary education 2001 1995 2001 1995 Public1 Private2 Total Total Public1 Private2 Total Total Ireland3 2.9 0.1 3.1 3.9 1.1 0.2 1.3 1.3 Denmark4 4.2 0.1 4.3 4.0 1.8 n 1.8 1.6 France 4.0 0.2 4.2 4.4 1.0 0.1 1.1 1.1 Germany 2.9 0.7 3.6 3.7 1.0 0.1 1.0 1.1 Sweden3 4.3 n 4.3 4.2 1.5 0.2 1.7 1.6 Switzerland 3.9 0.6 4.5 m 1.3 m m m United Kingdom 3.4 0.5 3.9 3.9 0.8 0.3 1.1 1.2 United States5 3.8 0.3 4.1 3.9 0.9 1.8 2.7 2.7 OECD mean 3.5 0.3 3.8 3.76 1.0 0.3 1.4 1.3 EU mean7 3.5 0.2 3.6 3.7 1.1 0.1 1.2 1.2 “m” Indicates that data are missing. “n” Indicates that magnitude is either negligible of zero. 1. Including public subsidies to households attributable for educational institutions. Including direct expenditure on educational institutions from international sources. 2. Net of public subsidies attributable for educational institutions. 3. Direct expenditure on tertiary-level educational institutions from international sources exceeds 1.5% of all public expenditure. 4. Public subsidies to households not included in public expenditure, but in private expenditure. Post- secondary non-tertiary included in both upper secondary and tertiary education. 5. Post-secondary non-tertiary included in tertiary education. 6. The average of OECD countries whose 1995 data are available. 7. The average of EU member countries whose data are available from OECD EAG 2004. Source: Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, Table B2.1b (OECD, 2004b).
- 36. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 30 Institutional funding Irish tertiary education is strongly dependent on public funding. According to the FGS study for the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (November 2003), the sources of university sector funding in 2001/02 were: This indicates that the state contribution to university sector funding is about 85% (the DES estimates 82%); while the state contribution to the institute of technology sector is 90%. The introduction of “free fees” for undergraduate courses in 1995/96 resulted in a substitute of public funding for potential private (fee) contributions. National expenditure on R&D Irish expenditure on R&D as a proportion of GDP is well below EU and OECD averages, but during recent years the country has rapidly increased its investment. Publicly financed research is mostly conducted in higher education institutions, predominantly in the university sector; institutes of technology engaged in applied research but on a limited scale. There is also a significant sector of government research institutes outside higher education. EU/Eurostat in its 2003 edition of Statistics on Science and Technology in Europe shows the following: Table 1.6. Sources of funding for universities, 2001/02 Percentages Exchequer funding block grant 55.5 Exchequer funding academic fees on behalf of students 29.6 Postgraduate fees paid by students 3.6 Student contributions i.e. student service charge 2.8 Fees paid by international students 4.4 Other sources 4.1 Source: FGS Consulting for CHIU, The Future Funding of the Irish University Sector, Figure 2, page 15 (FGS for CHIU 2003). Table 1.7. R&D expenditure in Ireland as a percentage of GDP, 2001 Percentages All sectors Tertiary institutions Government institutions Business enterprises Ireland 1.17 0.26 0.11 0.80 EU 1.98 0.41 0.25 1.30 USA 2.82 0.40 0.20 2.10 Source: EC/Eurostat, Statistics on Science and Technology in Europe, Table 2.1 (EC 2003).
- 37. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 31 This relatively low level of Irish expenditure is confirmed by two other and more up-to-date indicators: in 2003, Irish Government budget appropriations or outlays on R&D (GBAORD) amounted to 0.33% of GDP, compared to an EU average of 0.75% and the share of government investment in R&D as part of total government expenditure was 0.97%, compared to countries like Iceland (3%), Finland (2.02%), France (1.92%, Spain (1.73%), the Netherlands and the UK (1.70%) (EC/Eurostat, 2003, Table 5.4). However, Ireland started from a very low level of research intensity. In the 1990s, and particularly since 1998, the country has undertaken great efforts to increase its level of public investment in research with quite remarkable annual growth rates: 5.9% in the period 1992-97 and 12.3% between 1997 and 2002 (in the first years slightly lower than GDP growth, in the second well above). The new political priority has been reflected in the National Development Plan for 2000-06 where the government has allocated 2.5 billion EUR to research, technology, innovation and development, a five-fold increase compared to the period 1994-99 (Government of Ireland, 1999). Given the government’s firm intention for the country to be a significant international base for research and innovation, the budget increases of the last years need to be sustained for a long period, as is envisaged in the National Plan where it is stated that by 2010 the government aims at public investment in research equivalent to 0.58% of GDP. But this is only one side of the coin. There is also an under-investment in R&D from business and industry. Ireland will only be able to come near the EU objective, set in Lisbon, to invest 3% of GDP in the future-oriented area of R&D, if industry shoulders two-thirds of the costs as is the case in the most developed economies. This will require a growing readiness amongst multinational firms to undertake R&D on their Irish sites (so far only a quarter of them are active R&D performers) as well as a greater investment amongst indigenous companies. Irish-owned firms account for only one-third of total business expenditure on R&D. Output indicators thus show that Ireland still has some way to go to achieve its goals in research and innovation, but they also suggest that significant progress is being made. With regard to scientific publications per million population, Irish researchers at 327 are well below the European (460) and OECD country averages (402). Ireland contributes a relatively low number of triadic patent families (11.3 per million inhabitants) compared with the average of 36.3 for EU countries. With 49 researchers per 10 000 of the labour force, Ireland is below the EU (53) and the OECD average of 62 (OECD, 2003b). But the growth rate of scientific productivity is one of the fastest and the Irish research community performs above the European average and the United States in terms of highly cited papers as percentage of total number of scientific publications (data from 1997-99). Irish patent applications to the European Patent Office (year 2001) amount to 86 per million inhabitants
- 38. I.1. CONTEXT ANDINTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 32 against the EU average of 161 (Sweden is at 367, Finland 338, Germany 310), but Ireland is improving its performance steadily, at significant growth rates (EC/ Eurostat, 2003, Table 5.4). International comparisons of expenditure data are by no means the whole story, but they confirm the enormous strides Ireland has made over the last 15 years in raising its tertiary education age participation rate without any evidence of lack of quality. However, as we have seen, this expansion has not been evenly spread; it has concentrated on full-time tertiary education for 18-to-21-year-olds at the expense of widening access and lifelong learning. Expenditure on tertiary education has fallen as a proportion of GDP and has grown more rapidly than expenditure on education as a whole. Tertiary education institutions are very heavily dependent on public expenditure, as compared for example to the UK. In research, Ireland is engaged in a catching up process which will require sustained investment over a long period. But the most recent data shows that both public and private investment, particularly the latter, are well below the EU average and a long way off the Lisbon target for 2010. References CEC (Commission of the European Communities) (2004), Progress Towards the Common Objectives in Education and Training – Indicators and Benchmarks, SEC 73, Brussels. Coolahan, J. (2004), Country Background Report – Ireland, presented to OECD Education Committee as EDU/EC(2004)13, and included as Part II of this volume. EC/Eurostat (2003), Statistics on Science and Technology in Europe, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. FÁS (Foras Áiseanna Saothair)/ESRI (Economic and Social Research Institute) (2004), Occupational Employment Forecasts by Region for 2010, FAS/ESRI Manpower Forecasting Studies No. 11, Dublin. FGS Consulting for CHIU (Conference of Heads of Irish Universities) (2003), The Future Funding of the Irish University Sector, CHIU, Dublin. Government of Ireland (1999), National Development Plan, 2000-2006, Stationery Office, Dublin. McDonagh, S. (2003), Higher Education and the National Spatial Strategy, A Discussion Document, (draft). Morgan, M., R. Flanagan and T. Kellaghan (2001), A Study of Non-Completion in Undergraduate University Courses, HEA, Dublin. OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) (2003a), Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2003, OECD, Paris. OECD (2003b), Beyond Rhetoric: Adult Learning Policies and Practices, OECD, Paris. OECD (2004a), Economic Outlook 2004, No. 1, OECD, Paris. OECD (2004b), Education at a Glance: OECD Indicators 2004, OECD, Paris.
- 39. ISBN 92-64-01431-4 Reviews ofNational Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland © OECD 2006 33 PART I PART I Chapter 2 A Crossroads in the Development of Irish Tertiary Education This chapter analyses the structure of the Irish tertiary education system. It identifies the need for a unified concept of the sector and makes several recommendations to address problems, including the creation of a Tertiary Education Authority.
- 40. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 34 As the above international comparisons show, the development of Irish tertiary education is at a significant point of departure. It has achieved an improvement in the age participation rate in tertiary education which puts it amongst Europe’s leaders and it is beginning to invest significantly in research. All this was fuelled by a very fast-growing economy, as well as being a signal contributor to that growth. The slowdown in the economy, and the likely flattening off of the growth rate, was paralleled in the rate of expenditure on tertiary education. But this adjustment is not the only reason why a review of tertiary education is timely. The very full evidence, both written and oral, that we received suggests that there are a number of other major factors which put the tertiary education system at a crossroads: ● Ireland’s determination to move from being a technology-importing, low cost economy to an innovation-based, technology-generating society requires that Irish tertiary education and research and innovative indigenous enterprises have to become the new drivers of economic development and of the country’s international competitiveness. ● As the National Development Plan makes clear, Ireland is facing considerable pressure for increased public investment in a number of fields other than tertiary education, relevant to economic development, notably in health, transport and the environment as well as in primary and secondary education (Government of Ireland, 1999). ● The birth rate, which in the 1970s was about twice the European average (at 23 per thousand population), is forecast to decline to 13 per thousand by 2016. With the concentration of the entry into tertiary education being predominantly in the 18-to-20 age group (90%), this could lead to a decline in the annual cohort of second-level school leavers from around 70 000 in 1990 to around 53 000 by 2015 unless school staying-on rates improve considerably. The Higher Education Authority projects an increase in the age participation rate to over 66% by 2015, but this will require a significant improvement in the staying-on rates of pupils from economically disadvantaged backgrounds. ● The recognition that more needs urgently to be undertaken to widen participation in higher education (although not a task for tertiary education alone), to increase the mature entry and invest in lifelong learning as well as to address regional issues in line with the National Spatial Strategy.
- 41. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 35 ● The need to sustain investment in research and innovation and to address research infrastructure issues in a co-ordinated way so that the investment can be effectively and strategically managed. ● The need to determine the future role in research and the status of the institutes of technology and to respond to the recommendations of the Cromien Report on the responsibilities of the Department of Education and Science (DES, 2000a). ● The evidence that present resource allocation approaches, financial management methods and accountability requirements are increasingly at odds with managing a productive higher education system. ● The urgent need to modernise and rationalise the higher education system after a period when institutions have concentrated on very rapid growth so as to ensure that the system and the institutions are managed to achieve full effectiveness and value for money. ● A perception that Irish tertiary education is not punching its weight or achieving adequate recognition internationally. ● The need to position Ireland to be internationally competitive, innovative and successful in the economic conditions of the next two decades. Ireland has moved exceptionally quickly and with much foresight to address the weaknesses apparent in the early 1980s and has reaped extraordinary benefits in the way its economy has grown. But the need to embed a research culture, manage institutions better, broaden the base of funding, and redress imbalances that inevitably developed in the years of rapid growth sets a new agenda both for government and for higher education. The structure of the Irish tertiary education system Ireland has 20 main publicly-funded tertiary education institutions, seven of them universities and 13 of them institutes of technology (together with some small teacher training institutions). There are also some mainly privately-funded tertiary education institutions of which the largest, the National College of Ireland, has some 900 full-time and nearly 3 000 part-time students. Two of the universities, Dublin City University and the University of Limerick, were created from national institutes of higher education in 1989. Most of the institutes of technology were originally designated as regional colleges of technology and were given their present titles in 1998 but three institutes have been formed since then and one, Limerick, was upgraded from technical college status. The Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT), which was established in 1978 on the basis of an amalgamation of six vocational colleges is the largest institute and unsuccessfully sought a transfer to university status in 1997. DIT, after a long period of partnership with Trinity College,
- 42. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 36 Dublin has, since 2001, been accorded full degree awarding powers (for first, masters and doctoral degrees). In 2003, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) accorded Waterford and Cork the right to award their own first degrees and Waterford has now been permitted to award masters degrees (teaching). Other institutes are seeking similar powers and all are engaged in fostering studies to the doctorate level. The universities are funded through the Higher Education Authority (HEA) and the institutes directly by the Department of Education and Science (DES). The Cromien Report recommended that the DES should divest itself of the executive funding role in respect to the institutes (DES, 2000). One of the consequences of there being so many HEIs in a country with a population of 4 million is that even in spite of the high age participation rate, institutions are comparatively small by international standards. The largest university is University College, Dublin (UCC) with just over 15 000 full-time and 4 000 part-time students, while the smallest is Maynooth with 4 500 full-time and 600 part-time students. The institutes are much more diverse in size with the DIT standing out with nearly 10 000 full-time and over 5 000 part-time higher education students but with many being much smaller, at around 3 000 and below, full-time and usually much smaller part-time numbers. Since many of the institutes are strategically sited in areas where populations are low, that is not surprising. But the question of institutional size becomes important when issues of research concentration and postgraduate numbers have to be addressed because of the high cost of providing the appropriate infrastructure, both physical, in terms of facilities, and human, in terms of size of research teams and technical and other support. The diversity of the system One of the strengths of Ireland’s tertiary education system is the extent to which a diversity of mission has been maintained between the university and the institute sectors, as well as within the sectors. This has been reinforced by organisational differences and the difference in funding regimes and accountability mechanisms between the two sectors. We believe that it is critical to maintain that diversity even if (see below) some of the organisational factors change. We are particularly impressed by the extent to which the institutes see themselves as different from the universities and the role they play in respect to the National Spatial Strategy in local economic development, in encouraging wider participation through local catchment, their support for apprenticeship and craft skill training and the provision of ladders of opportunity through different educational levels, and in the applied character of their work. We do not believe that location in a designated regional gateway provides a justification for the transfer of an institute to university status; indeed we think it is essential that the applied focus which their current differentiation of mission prescribes for
- 43. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 37 their role in regional gateways is preserved and utilised to the full. The role of DIT is significantly different to that of other institutes by reason of its age, size, academic range and location in Dublin but we believe that its mission too as a comprehensive higher education institution serving the very broad educational and vocational needs of Dublin must be retained. The success of the institute sector needs to be nurtured and celebrated so that its differentiation from the university sector is not seen as conferring lower status but defining it as an equal partner in a dynamic higher education system which covers a diverse range of functions. For this to be fully realised, some of the organisational disadvantages of the present structure need to be addressed and these are dealt with below. The lack of a unified concept of a tertiary education system The Irish case has demonstrated that a mass higher education system should respond both to the diversity of interests, talents and inclinations of young people but also to the demands of the labour market and the economy for a range, rather than a single set, of qualifications. We therefore believe that Ireland should retain a differentiated tertiary education system but should take steps to integrate the components better than it does at present. In spite of the general recognition of the complementary roles of the institute and university sectors, the concept of a unified tertiary education system remains unrealised; we were constantly told of the fragmentation of policy and policy implementation which has stifled development. This is reinforced by the separation of the management of the two sectors between the DES and the HEA. Although we saw evidence of local co-operation in, for example, Cork between the University and the Cork Institute of Technology and we heard of other examples, we gained the impression that even though the PRTLI had greatly stimulated partnership arrangements, the sense of a unified system was lacking. Even in the case of Cork, where collaborative arrangements over degree programmes work well, an attempt by the two institutions to develop a joint marine/nautical research and teaching centre was frustrated by an inability to arrange complementary funding from national sources within a workable time frame. Internationally, competition between institutions is generally regarded as a force for quality and institutional development but Irish HEIs need to recognise that they are relatively small and that the undoubted strength of the system will only be fully realised through institutional collaboration whether in research, postgraduate programmes, first degree work or lifelong learning. We believe that collaboration should be incentivised in funding mechanisms in order to break down the sectoral and other barriers that undoubtedly exist. Such collaboration, particularly in relation to widening access and to lifelong learning generally needs to be extended to the further education colleges in order to ensure that ladders of opportunity reach down as far as possible into local communities.
- 44. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 38 A Tertiary Education Authority A major step towards reinforcing the sense of a single system of tertiary education would be taken if the institutes and the universities were brought under a single funding authority which we propose should be called the Tertiary Education Authority (TEA). This has been in prospect for some time, and we firmly recommend it, but do so with the caveat that the new Authority must contain machinery to prevent mission drift in either direction. The new machinery required for this is described below. Not the least of the advantages of the transfer will be the removal of a range of managerial constraints that the institutes believe disadvantage them in comparison with universities and hinder them from reacting quickly to pressures and opportunities in their own regions. These include the absence of a block grant and the requirement that they obtain approval for the filling of vacancies or the establishment of new posts from the Department; ministerial approval for the declaration of redundancies; the provision of monthly accounts; the absence of borrowing powers (even within the constraints imposed currently by the HEA on universities); the reversion to the Department of income from “entrepreneurial” activities; the need to gain approval from the Department for new academic programmes; the special arrangements for the appointment of institute directors, and other bureaucratic controls that might have been appropriate when the institutes were much smaller and less mature than they are now (we were told that institutes suffered from six separate reporting mechanisms). It is essential that the institutes which have performed so well in the last decade should be given every incentive to continue to do so because the future economic success of their local and regional communities is strongly linked to their success and their freedom of manoeuvre. It could be argued that there are dangers in freeing up the institutes in this way as would occur if they were transferred to a “lighter touch” regime under a new authority. Inevitably an element of management risk is involved, (some controlling mechanisms are proposed below), but all over Europe, and perhaps particularly in the nearby UK, governments are devolving responsibilities and freedoms to educational institutions, balanced by tough accountability mechanisms, in order to encourage them to act more innovatively and to be more adaptable and responsive to local opportunity. Such changes require balances to be struck between effective governance (see below) and greater budgetary freedom and accountability, but evidence suggests that they can motivate initiative and encourage local flexibility. There are three particular areas where institutes want change, seeing themselves at a disadvantage as compared to universities. The first is in relation to the need for them to obtain approval from the Department before a new degree programme is initiated, unlike the universities who are free to develop programmes when and as they see fit. In a system threatened with demographic downturn, this complaint has real substance and we agree with
- 45. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 39 the need to provide a more “level playing field”. On the one hand, we believe that in general the market is the best mechanism for determining which programmes survive in a situation of a downturn in applicants, whether demographic led or not, but on the other hand, we think it is inappropriate for institutions to take academic decisions which will have the effect of destabilising partner, and usually neighbouring institutions. We propose below a new approach to funding higher education institutions (HEIs), which will in part achieve this but in addition we recommend as a safeguard that machinery be established in the new funding authority to which HEIs can take their case if they can show that a neighbouring institution is deliberately creating new programmes to cut into their market. The Tertiary Education Authority’s decision must be binding on both parties. A second area of concern is that the universities and the institutes should have a common quality assurance scheme for their programmes. We support this in principle but note that the Inter-University Quality Board has not been in full operation for long. We believe it would be sensible to allow this to mature and settle down before imposing more changes. Moreover, there are moves in the European tertiary education area to establish new quality arrangements under the Bologna Declaration and it would be unwise to establish, no doubt after considerable argument, a new unified quality system in Ireland only for it to be overtaken by new Europe-wide cross-border systems of quality assurance that are emerging which might offer an attractive internationally-based alternative. Finally, the institutes, some of which have attracted quite significant research support either through PRTLI or from other sources, believe that they should be allocated research infrastructure funding on a recurrent basis to enable them to compete on an equal terms with universities for research grants and contracts. This is dealt with in Chapter 5. Recommendations 1. That the differentiation of mission between the university and the institute of technology sectors be preserved and that for the foreseeable future there be no further institutional transfers into the university sector. 2. That steps be taken to co-ordinate better the development of the tertiary education system by bringing the universities and the institutes under a new common authority, the Tertiary Education Authority, but that machinery be established within the Authority to prevent mission drift. 3. That in transferring the institutes of technology to the new Authority, the managerial controls on their freedom to manage themselves to meet institutional objectives be reviewed with a view to lightening drastically the load of external regulation.
- 46. I.2. A CROSSROADSIN THE DEVELOPMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 40 4. That greater collaboration between institutions be encouraged and incentivised through funding mechanisms in research, first-degree and postgraduate-degree work and in widening access and lifelong learning. 5. That in a situation of potential demographic-led decline in student numbers, institutes of technology be given the same freedom to initiate new academic programmes as the universities and that the new funding Authority establish a mechanism, which should be binding on both institutions, to deal with complaints that an institution was deliberately creating a new programme which would cut into the established market of a neighbouring institution. 6. That, in principle, there should be a common quality assurance machinery covering both sectors of tertiary education but that implementation should be deferred to give the university quality assurance machinery created under the 1997 Act more time to develop and pending longer-term clarification of the cross-border systems of quality assurance that are emerging under the Bologna Process. References DES (Department of Education and Science) (2000a), The Cromien Report, Review of Department’s Operations, Systems and Staffing Needs, Department of Education and Science, Dublin. Government of Ireland (1999), National Development Plan, 2000-2006, Stationery Office, Dublin.
- 47. ISBN 92-64-01431-4 Reviews ofNational Policies for Education Higher Education in Ireland © OECD 2006 41 PART I PART I Chapter 3 The Governance and Management of Irish Tertiary Education Institutions This chapter analyses problems in governance and management of the Irish higher education institutions that cover both the universities and the institutes of technology. It recommends changes in the areas of financial management, human resource management, accountability, institutional governance structures, institutional leadership and resource allocation.
- 48. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 42 As indicated in Chapter 1, by international comparisons Ireland has funded its higher education system well for teaching (and remarkably well from the point of view of keeping up with the rapid expansion of the system) but less well for research. This is borne out by the evidence provided by ratios of academic staff to students which in 2002/3 stood at 1: 17.8 for the university sector and 1: 13.8 (or 1: 14.8 if DIT is excluded) in the institute of technology sector (data provided by the Department of Education and Science, Ireland). These figures would be regarded as generous, at least for the institutes of technology in comparison with many parts of Europe, where the consequence of the move to mass higher education has been a considerable worsening in the ratios of academic staff to student numbers. If Ireland’s ambitions are to be met, not only will further investment be required but it will need to be better targeted and its expenditure better managed at institutional levels in order to achieve the best results. Although the system has adjusted remarkably to the considerable expansion in student and staff numbers and resources which has characterised the last decade and a half, it has not made major adaptations yet in the way institutions are managed. Ireland has funded the expansion very effectively but that phase is over and attention must now be given to modernising the system and giving HEIs the environment in which the modernisation of their own management can take place. The issues set out at the beginning of Chapter 2 render this an essential next step; unless modernisation takes place there is a risk that the investment of additional resources will fail to be effective. Changes required to the financial environment Institutions will only operate effectively, develop strategies and implement them if the financial environment encourages good practice and provides a reasonably secure platform for decision-making. Although the funding methodology to be adopted by the new Tertiary Education Authority will be critical in this regard, there are areas of government financial practice which themselves need to be addressed. Some of these, which are particular to the institutes of technology, have been referred to in Chapter 2 and in our recommendation in respect to the transfer of their management and funding to the new Authority. But others were raised with us constantly in written and oral evidence and are commented on below.
- 49. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 43 Multi-year-funding There are actually two problems related to multi-year funding: first, the government’s financial year runs on a calendar basis from 1 January to 31 December whereas the HEIs’ financial year runs on an academic year; second, government financial allocations are made so late in the year that the financial year has often run through a first quarter before the recurrent allocation for the year is confirmed. The first is essentially a technical issue but we believe that it should be addressed if only to remove confusion and unnecessary uncertainty. The second is critical to the effective management of institutions. Fluctuations in government funding, while undesirable, are perhaps an inevitable consequence of modern conditions, but should not be visited on institutions mid-year. To do so destroys credible planning and vitiates efforts to develop longer term strategies for institutional development. Uncertainties about longer-term funding are particularly damaging in building research environments and managing research teams and will undermine future investment programmes in research. Offsetting income earned by institutions There is considerable uncertainty in both sectors in regard to the incentives for generating private (non-state) funding, particularly through external earnings, and practice is not consistent. The university sector is dependent for over 80% of its funding from the HEA and the institute of technology sector for 90% from the DES. We are of the opinion that this is no longer a balanced way of funding HEIs and is increasingly out of line with the situation and trends in some other advanced industrial nations where non-state income is a growing element in institutional budgets. We recommend that the government make an unequivocal statement that generating non-state resources whether through fees from overseas students, income from short courses for industry, income from spin-out companies, or from other commercial activities should be retained by the institution concerned and should not be taken into account in any way in the calculation of recurrent grant. This will remove any disincentive to institutions to generate additional resources by their own efforts and will encourage institutional diversity. Generating and carrying forward institutional surpluses Good institutional management requires that institutions generate surpluses and create reserves but both appear to be discouraged under current financial rules. A recent OECD/IMHE report on institutional sustainability in higher education (OECD/IMHE, 2004) drew attention to the need to put aside 4% to 5% of the insured cost of all HEI buildings for long-term maintenance in order to cope with major refurbishment or replacement costs in later years.
- 50. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 44 Nearly all Irish HEIs have buildings dating from the 1960s and 70s which already need substantial renewal programmes, and because of the rapid expansion, all of them have a significant tranche of newer buildings for which no financial provision for renewal has yet been made. This represents a serious financial overhang which will place increasing demands on institutional or government expenditure in the future and which needs to be addressed now before the situation worsens. HEIs need reserves to cover equipment and furniture replacement costs, to build up resources to invest in major new activities or to cover significant downturns in income or fluctuations in student numbers. For a research-intensive institution anxious to compete in a global academic market for key research leaders, the availability of reserves to meet unanticipated demands represents a critical weapon in an institution’s armoury. We recommend that restrictions on retaining surpluses and building up reserves be dispensed with and that institutions should be encouraged to aim to achieve surpluses equivalent to 3% of expenditure and to set aside funds for long-term maintenance. Academic and academic-related salaries By international comparisons, academic salaries are quite high and, being linked to civil service salary scales, are provided with some protection against fluctuations in institutional fortunes. But the linkage also creates inflexibilities. This particularly applies in recruiting from overseas where a larger salary package may be required than is provided for in civil service scales. We were told that ways have been found around these problems in individual PRTLI or SFI grant situations where HEIs have found ways to attract leading researchers from overseas outside the established salary structures. But this is not an adequate basis for competing in an international market for key research leaders, as will be necessary if Ireland is to compete internationally in research. We believe that salary restrictions need to be removed so that HEIs can act more entrepreneurially and more quickly to attract or retain particular individuals who have key skills, academic expertise or experience that the institution needs. We are confident that efficient and accountable internal procedures can be devised to ensure that the freedom to offer individualised salary packages is not abused. Accountability We recommend below that institutions be funded through a contract against an agreed strategic plan, which will significantly increase accountability for performance. However, at the most basic level of financial accountability, we believe the current situation could be much improved. At the moment, HEIs, while having their own “internal” auditors, rely on the Comptroller and Auditor General to audit their accounts. This process is often subject to delay because of
- 51. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 45 the other demands on the Comptroller and Auditor General’s staff and is conducted on a purely financial basis. We recommend that, except in exceptional circumstances, HEIs be not audited directly by the Comptroller and Auditor General but be required to have an internal audit service reporting to an Internal Audit Committee and to employ external auditors from the private sector whose reports would be available to the Tertiary Education Authority which itself would employ an audit team to act on behalf of, and in consultation with, the Comptroller and Auditor General. The Authority could then require audited accounts earlier than is now the case (and act on them more quickly if required) and would be in a better position to analyse them, both individually and on a system wide basis and report accordingly to the Department and to the Comptroller and Auditor General. Institutional governance and management In a period when internationally there is intense competition among public sector agencies for resources, questions about the delivery of services whether in health, or in education, or in welfare become paramount. In every country, resources are finite but their investment can be enhanced or diluted by the effectiveness or weakness of the organisations through which they are targeted. Irish universities and institutes of technology have been transformed through extremely rapid growth over the last 15 years but their internal structures have not been much modified to adapt to the new pressures they find themselves under. Their governance and management now need to be reformed in order to be able to compete not just with one another but in broader international settings. Fortunately the likely slow down in expansion, if not decline, in student numbers provides the opportunity to undertake the necessary modernisation process. This is particularly the case for the universities where so much of the research investment must be placed if they are to become significant vehicles for the continued development of what the National Development Plan describes as the “knowledge-based” economy where “intellect and innovation will determine competitive advantage… [and to which] the accumulation of ‘knowledge-capital’ represents a key contribution” (Government of Ireland, 1999, paragraph 6.35). We received testimony on all sides of the culture-changing role of the PRTLI programme in focussing institutions to make selective choices. But if this programme’s success is to be built on effectively, the process of making decisions between competing claims, the recognition that resources should be allocated against potential outcomes, the construction of strategic plans that reinforce certain academic areas at the expense of others, and the human resource policies that reward excellence and discourage lack of performance must be reinforced. This does not represent a case for the introduction of crude managerialism or the elimination of collegiality but for creating the decision-making
- 52. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 46 mechanisms where priorities can be agreed and carried through. If Irish universities wish to be among the best, they will take note of the way the best universities world wide equip themselves to take decisions in intensely competitive environments. Governing bodies There is a considerable interest in governance issues in both the corporate world and in universities in Europe. Many European countries which have not previously had lay elements in their governance have now introduced them and are increasingly using them as “non-executive directors” both to provide institutional accountability mechanisms in, for example, the remuneration of senior post holders and in audit but also to play important roles in strategy. The former role was highlighted in The Financial Governance of Irish Universities (HEA and CHIU, 2001) but the latter was emphasised in the Hoare Report in Australia (Commonwealth of Australia, 1995) and the Dearing Report in the UK (National Committee of Inquiry into Higher Education, 1997). If one excludes from the statistics Trinity College, Dublin which has an almost wholly academic governing body, analogous to the situation in Oxford and Cambridge, Irish universities’ governing bodies have an average of 36 members, half of the members drawn from outside the university (i.e. laymen). This pattern should be compared to US boards of regents or trustees which are smaller and, other than the university president, are made up entirely of lay people or to the UK where external (lay) members have a large majority over academic representation. We believe that governing bodies in Ireland are too large to play the important strategic role they should now be exercising and that the balance of lay to academic members is too low. We would favour governing bodies of no more than 20 members (including student members) with a significant majority of lay members. We think that this would make them better placed to think strategically. We would expect that the major conduit of academic views on strategic issues would come via reports from the senate but that the role of a governing body, either acting on its own or through some joint body with the senate, must be to reconcile, and if necessary, prioritise academic requirements with financial considerations and the requirements of physical planning. This reduction in size would necessitate a review of the composition of governing bodies. We would favour a simpler process of determining membership than that contained in the 1997 Education Act to the effect that the chair would always be drawn from the existing lay membership, but elected by the whole governing body, and that the lay membership would be nominated by a nominations committee of the governing body, made up primarily of lay members after the governing body had itself determined the range of skills and experience it wished to attract onto the board. This would emphasise the strategic needs of the institution over the representative
- 53. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 47 nature of the present governing bodies, leaving the governing bodies themselves to determine the size and depth of local representation, the range of professional skills, business links and other factors which would contribute most effectively to the development of the institution. Leadership We received clear evidence from the universities we visited of the recognition of the importance of institutional leadership. We believe that the post of university president should be publicly advertised and that universities should always encourage and seek out external applicants. However, leadership needs to be distributed in universities, not concentrated in a single post. We recommend that procedures be created for the rotation of headships of departments so as to stimulate new ideas being fed into departmental processes and for mechanisms to be created to ensure that such appointments are approved by the governing body on the recommendation of the president. We strongly endorse the idea of “the central steering core” (Clark, 1998), to assist the president in the management of the institution and in maintaining its strategic focus. Universities are multi-product organisations with core missions in teaching, research and service to the wider society and they benefit from shared decision-making and a sense of corporate responsibility in priority setting. Resource allocation We did not find clear evidence of internal resource allocation processes within universities through which central strategic plans, for example for the investment in one subject area or department at the expense of reductions elsewhere, were translated into actual allocations of resources. In a period of rapidly expanding student numbers, such decisions are easier to make because funds themselves are increasing each year, but in a steady-state situation, matching priorities to resources is much more difficult. Essential data about academic performance, staffing levels and other costs were not easily available and processes which promoted equity over rewarding performance seemed to predominate. But if universities are to become major research institutions with sustainable research profiles, differentiated investment in new staff, incentives for performance and the allocation of research infrastructure support are critical for long-term success. In many cases, allocations of increased resources need to be balanced against the need to withdraw funding from less academically successful areas to pay for such investments. To establish such an organisational culture, universities need to create transparent resource allocation mechanisms closely reflecting their strategic plans and mission statements as approved by their governing bodies, and put in place processes by which they can be implemented.
- 54. I.3. THE GOVERNANCEAND MANAGEMENT OF IRISH TERTIARY EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS REVIEWS OF NATIONAL POLICIES FOR EDUCATION: HIGHER EDUCATION IN IRELAND – ISBN 92-64-01431-4 – © OECD 2006 48 Human resource management in universities Universities have not, until the PRTLI programme, had to consider a differential reward system to recognise success or lack of it in research. Academic staff are appointed on a two-year probationary period and in effect therefore are judged on their performance in order to be given a permanent appointment shortly after completing their first year. This gives an inadequate period in which to judge an academic record. We recommend that tenure decisions be significantly delayed, perhaps to the fifth year of service as in the United States, and that research performance be given equal prominence to teaching. At more senior levels, staffing structures are too inflexible and contain too few incentives for high performance. Promotion to personal chairs, that is, non-established professorships conferred solely on the basis of individual performance in research and research leadership, is almost unknown so that top researchers are forced either to look for posts elsewhere, often abroad, or to wait till a professorial vacancy occurs. Most universities would agree that they have a significant body of staff who are not research active, and with student numbers unlikely to increase by much, if at all, there will be difficulty in bringing in new blood except on limited-term research contracts. We believe that universities need to address this situation actively: they need to be more selective at the tenure stage, be more flexible about promoting staff to reflect research excellence, develop ways either of incentivising research-inactive staff back into research or of creating space, through early retirement schemes, to continue to make new-blood appointments. All this emphasises the need for a more positive approach to staff development in both universities and institutes of technology and the commitment of institutional resources to staff development programmes covering the whole range of work in tertiary education, in particular in the development and updating of teaching skills, in addressing wider societal needs such as access and widening participation or in areas relating to research and the exploitation of research findings. We believe that this is of such importance that we recommend that the new Tertiary Education Authority set up a monitoring process to ensure that a high priority is given to staff development in all HEIs. Governance and management in the institutes of technology Some institutes have suffered from a confusion in the roles of governing bodies and institute directors as to which should be responsible for the control and conduct of their institutions (see the Regional Technical Colleges Act, 1992). We recommend that these powers be removed from the remit of the governing body as pertaining to the managerial rather than the governing function of institutions. We also believe that the terms of membership of the external (lay) members should be amended so that the institutes can themselves appoint members using the nominations committee system we recommended for the universities. We are confident that they will continue to draw on local
- 55. Exploring the Varietyof Random Documents with Different Content
- 56. offered her thebest matches in the world, he was hard to please. Nothing short of a king would have suited his ambition." As the old shadchen spoke his right arm, hand, and fingers were busily engaged punctuating his words with a system of the most intricate and most diversified evolutions in the air. "And how does she look?" Rouvke again broke in. "Is she still as pretty as she used to be?" "That she is," the matchmaker returned grimly. "But all the worse for her. Would she were plainer looking, for then her father would not have been so fastidious about a young man for her, and she might be a mother of three children by this time." "Oh, she will have no trouble in making a match; such a beauty!" Rouvke observed. In the afternoon of the same day, Rouvke lay across his bed with his legs stretched on a chair, after his wont, and his head lost in recollections of Hanele. She had recently all but faded away from his memory, and when he did have occasion to recall her, her portrait before his mind's eye would be a mere faint-drawn outline. But now, singularly enough, he could somehow again vividly see her good- natured, deep, dark eyes, and her rosy lips perpetually exposing the dazzling whiteness of her teeth and illuminating her pallid face with inextinguishable good humor; he could hear the rustle of her fresh calico dress as she friskily ran up to answer her father's solemnly affectionate "Good Sabbath," on Reb Peretz's return from synagogue, the last Saturday before Rouvke's departure. The image did not send a yearning thrill through Rouvke, as it would have done during his first few months in America; still, on the other hand, it now had for his wearied soul a quieting, benign charm, which it had never exercised before, and the more deeply to indulge in its soothing effect, he shut his eyes. "Suppose I marry her." The thought flashed through his mind, but was instantly dismissed as an absurdity too gross to be indulged even for a pastime. But the
- 57. thought carried himback to his old days in Kropovetz, and he wished he could go there in flesh for a visit. What a glorious time it would be to let them see his stylish American dress, his business-like manners and general air of prosperity and "echucation"! Ah, how they would be stupefied to see the once Rouvke Arbel thus elegantly attired, "like a regula' dood"! For who in all Kropovetz wears a cut- away, a brown derby, a necktie, and a collar like his? And would it not be lovely to donate a round sum to the synagogue? Oh, how he would be sought after and paraded! "Poor Reb Peretz!" he said to himself, transferring his thoughts to the news of his old employer's adversity. "Poor Hanele!" Whereat the Kropovetz girl loomed up, her head lowered and tears trickling down her cheeks, as he had once seen her when she sat quietly lamenting her defeated expectation of a new dress. Rouvke conceived the vague idea of sending Reb Peretz fifty dollars, which would make the respectable sum of one hundred rubles. But the generous plan was presently lost in a labyrinth of figures, accounts of his customers, and reflections upon his prospective store, which the notion of fifty dollars called forth in his dollar-ridden brain. He thus lay plunged in meditation until his reverie was broken by the door flying open. "Good Sabbath! Good Sabbath!" Reb Feive greeted his young townsman with his martyr-like features relaxed into a significant smile, as he squeezed himself through the narrow space between the half-opened door and the foot of the bedstead. "Do not take ill my not knocking at the door first. I am not yet used to your customs here, greenhorn that I am." "Ah, Reb Feive! Good Sabbath!" Rouvke returned, starting up with an anxious air and foreboding an appeal for pecuniary assistance. "Guess what brings me, Rouven." "How can I tell?" the host rejoined, with a forced simper. "And why should you not call just for a visit in honor of the Sabbath? You are a
- 58. welcome guest. Beseated," he added, indicating his solitary chair and himself keeping his seat on the bed, which rendered the additional service of lounge. "How dare these beggarly greenhorns beset me in this manner?" he left unsaid. "Indeed, what business have they to come to America at all?" "Well, how are things going on in Kropovetz?" he asked, audibly. "Business is very dull here—very dull, indeed—may I not be punished for talking business on Sabbath"— "Well, do leave business alone! You had better hear my errand, Rouven," the matchmaker said, working his fingers. "Suppose I had a shidech for you, eh?" "A shidech?" Rouvke ejaculated, much relieved from his misgivings, only to become all of a flutter with delicious surprise. "Yes, a shidech; and what sort of a one! You never dreamed of such a shidech, I can assure you. Never mind blushing like that. Why, is it not high time for a young man like you to get married?" "I am not blushing at all," Rouvke protested, coloring still more deeply, and missing the sentence by which he had been about to inform himself of the fair one's name without betraying his feverish impatience. "Well," Reb Feive resumed, with a smile, and twisting his sidelock into a corkscrew, "it would be too cruel to try your patience. Let us come straight to the point, then. I mean—guess whom—well, I mean Hanele, Peretz the distiller's Hanele! What do you think of that?" the shadchen added in a whisper, as he let go of his corkscrew, and started back in well-acted ecstasy to watch the produced effect. Rouvke flushed up to the roots of his hair, while his mouth opened in one of those embarrassed grins which seem to be especially adapted to the mouths of Kropovetz horse-drivers,—one which makes the
- 59. general expression ofthe face such that you are at a loss whether to take it for a smile or for the preliminary to a cry. "You must be joking, Reb Feive. Why I a-a-a-I am not thinking of getting married as yet; a-a-you had better tell me some news," he faltered. The fact is that the shadchen's attack had taken him so unawares that it gave him no time to analyze his own mind, and although the subject thrilled his soul with delightful curiosity, he dreaded the risk of committing himself. But Feive was not the man to let himself be put off so easily in matters of a professional nature; and so, warming up to the beloved topic, he launched out in a flood of garrulity, emphasizing his speech now by striking some figure in space, now by an energetic twirl of his yellowish gray appendages. He enlarged with real shadchenlike gusto on the prospective bride's virtues and accomplishments; on the love which, according to him, she had always professed for Rouvke; on the frivolity of American girls; on the honor it would confer upon his listener to marry into the family of Reb Peretz the distiller. Rouvke followed Reb Feive with breathless attention, but never uttered a word or a gesture which might be interpreted into an encouragement. This, however, mattered but little to the old matrimonial commission agent, for, carried away with his own eloquence, he talked himself into the impression that Rouvke "was willing," if I may be permitted to borrow a phrase from a more famous horse-driver. At any rate, when Reb Feive suddenly bethought himself that he came near missing the afternoon service at the synagogue, and abruptly got up from his seat, Rouvke seemed anxious to detain him; and as he returned "What is your hurry, Reb Feive?" to his departing visitor's "Good-pie!—is that the way you say here on leaving?" he felt for the old man a kind of filial tenderness. Choson is a term applied to a Jewish young man, embracing the period from the time he is placed on the matrimonial market down
- 60. to the terminationof the nuptial festivities. There is all the difference in the world between a choson and a common unmarried mortal of the male sex, who is left to the bare designation of bocher, the very sound of the hymeneal title possessing an indefinable charm, an element of solemnity, which seems to invest its bearer with a glittering halo. Reb Feive thus suddenly, as if by a magic wand, converted Rouvke from a simple bocher into a choson. And so keenly alive was Rouvke to his unexpected transformation, that for some time after the wizard's departure his face was wreathed in bashful smiles, as if his new self, by its dazzling presence, embarrassed him. He felt the change in himself in a general way, however, and quite apart from the idea of Hanele. As to Peretz's daughter, the notion of her assenting to marry him again seemed preposterous. Besides, admitting for argument's sake, as the phrase goes, that she would accept him, Rouvke reflected that he would then not be fool enough to enter into wedlock with a portionless girl; that if he waited a year or two longer (although it seemed much too long to wait), that is, until he was a prospering storekeeper, he could get for a wife the daughter of some Division Street merchant with two or three thousand dollars into the bargain. So he relinquished the thought of Hanele as a thing out of the question and proceeded to picture himself the choson of some American girl. But as he was making that effort, the image of the Kropovetz maiden kept intruding upon his imagination, interfering with the mental process, and his heart seemed all the while to be longing after the dismissed subject and filled with the desire that he might have both matches to choose from. Finally, he yielded and resumed the discussion of Reb Feive's project. The idea of a Division Street business man for a father-in-law, beside the assumption of becoming the son-in-law of Reb Peretz, appeared prosaic and vulgar. Those New York merchants had risen from the mire, like himself, while his old master looked at the world from the lofty height of distinguished birth, added to Talmudical learning and exceeding
- 61. social importance. Andhere the ties of traditional reverence and adoration which bound Rouvke to his former employer made themselves keenly felt in his heart. Ah, for the privilege of calling Reb Peretz father-in-law! To think of the stir the news would make among his townsfolk, both in Kropovetz and here in New York! Besides, the American-born or "nearly American-born" girls inspire him with fear. These young ladies are brought up at picnics and balls, while to him the very thought of inviting a lady for a dance is embarrassing. What are they good for, anyway? They look more Christian than Jewish, and are only great hands at squandering their husbands' money on candy, dresses, and theatres. A woman like that would domineer over him, treat him haughtily, and generally make life a burden to him. Hanele, dear Hanele, on the other hand, is a true daughter of Israel. She would make a good housekeeper; would occasionally also mind the store; would accompany him to synagogue every Saturday; and that is just what a man like him wants in a wife. An English-speaking Mrs. Friedman he would have to call "darling," a word barren of any charm or meaning for his heart, whereas Hanele he would address in the melodious terms of "Kreinele meine! Gold meine!"[14] Ah, the very music of these sounds would make him cry with happiness! The thought of a walk to synagogue with Hanele, dressed in a plush cloak and an enormous hat, by his side, and of whispering these words of endearment in her ear was enchanting enough; but then, enchantment-like, the spectacle soon faded away before the hard, retrospective fact of Rouvke, the horse-driver, in top-boots, serving tea to Hanele, the only daughter of Reb Peretz the distiller. "Oh, it cannot be! Feive is a greener to take such a match into his head!" he mentally exclaimed in black despair. And forthwith he once more sought consolation in the prospect of a marriage portion which a New York wife would bring him, and fell to adding the probable amount to his own future capital. Hanele will reject him? Why, so much the better! That makes it impossible for him to commit the folly of sacrificing at least two thousand dollars. And his spirits rose at the narrow escape he was having from a ruinous temptation. Still,
- 62. lurking in adeeper corner of his heart, there lingered something which wounded his pride and made him feel as if he would much rather have that means of escape cut off from him and the temptation left for himself to grapple with. Feive, the melamed, had another talk with Rouvke; but although he did not hesitate to speak authoritatively of Reb Peretz's and Hanele's assent, he utterly failed to elicit from his interlocutor any positive hint. Nothing daunted, however, the shadchen despatched a lengthy epistle to Reb Peretz. He went off in raptures over Rouvke's wealth, social rank in America, and religious habits, and gave him credit for newly acquired education. "It is not the Rouvke of yore," read at least one line on each of the ten pages of the letter. The installment peddling business was elevated to the dignity of a combination of large concerns in furniture, jewelry, and clothing. The owner of this thriving establishment was depicted as panting with love for Hanele, and this again was pointed out as proof that the match had been foreordained by Providence. Reb Peretz's answer had not reached its destination when in New York there occurred two events which came to the daring matchmaker's assistance. The daughter of a Seventh Ward landlord had been betrothed to a successful custom peddler, her father promising one thousand dollars in cash, in addition to a complete household outfit, as her marriage portion. As the fixed wedding-day drew near, the choson was one day shocked to receive from his would-be father-in-law the intimation that his girl and the household outfit were good enough on their own merits, and that the thousand dollars would have to be dispensed with. The young man immediately cut short his visits to the landlord's daughter; but a fortnight had hardly elapsed before he found himself behind prison bars on an action brought in the name of his brokenhearted sweetheart. How the matter was compromised does not concern our story; but the news, which for several days was the main topic of gossip in the peddler stores, reached Rouvke; and the effect it had on him the reader may well imagine: it riddled
- 63. to pieces theonly unfavorable argument in his discussion of Feive's offer. A still more powerful element in reaching a conclusion was with Rouvke the following incident:— One day he went to see the shadchen, who had his lodging in the house of a fellow townsman. While he stood behind the door adjusting his necktie, as he now invariably did before entering a house, he overheard a loud dialogue between the housewife and her boarder. Catching his own name, Rouvke paused with bated breath to listen. "Pray, don't be talking nonsense, Reb Feive," came to the ears of our eavesdropper. "Peretz the distiller give his Hanele in marriage to Rouvke Arbel!—That pock-pitted bugbear and Hanele! Such a beauty, such a pampered child! Why, anybody would be glad to marry her, penniless as she may be. She marry that horrid thing, slop-tub, cholera that he is!" Rouvke was cut to the quick; and shivering before the prospect of hearing some further uncomplimentary allusions to himself, he was on the point of beating retreat; but the very thought of those epithets continuing to be uttered at his expense, even though beyond his hearing, was too painful to bear; and so he put a stop to them by a knock at the door. "But are you really sure, Reb Feive, that Reb Peretz will have me?" he queried, after a little, all of a flutter, in a private conversation with the shadchen, in the bedroom. "Leave it to me," the marriage-broker replied. "I have managed greater things in my lifetime. It is as good as settled." "See if I do not marry Hanele after all, if only to spite you, grudging witch that you are!" Rouvke, in his heart, addressed to his townswoman, on emerging from the pitchy darkness of the little bedroom.
- 64. "Good-by, Mrs. Kohen!"his tongue then said, as his eyes looked daggers at her. Reb Peretz concluded the reading of Reb Feive's letter by good naturedly calling him "foolish melamed." Little by little, however, the very fact that the shadchen could now dare conceive such a match at all began to mortify him. It took him back to the time when Rouvke used to sit behind his mare, and when he, Reb Peretz, was the most prosperous Jew for miles around, and it wrung his heart with pity both for himself and for Hanele. He became aware that it was over a year since a young man had come to offer himself, and instead of becoming irritated with his daughter, as had latterly been frequently the case with him, he was overpowered by an acute twinge of hurt pride, as well as by compunction for the splendid matrimonial opportunities which he had brushed aside from her. It occurred to Reb Peretz that Hanele was now in her twenty-fifth year, whereupon his fancy reproachfully pointed at his cherished child in the form of a gray-haired old maid. A shudder ran through his veins at the vision, and he began to seek refuge in commercial air castles, but the aërial structures were presently blown away, only to leave him face to face with the wretched ramshackle edifice of his actual affairs. His attention reverted to the American letter, but the collocation of Rouvke Arbel with Hanele sickened Reb Peretz. His self-respect suddenly rushed back upon him, and he felt like "tearing out the beard and sidelocks" of the impudent shadchen. Nevertheless, he took up the letter once more. This time the matchmaker's eulogies of Rouvke's flourishing business made a deeper impression on him, and brought the indistinct reflection that in course of time he might have to emigrate to America himself with his whole family. "Pooh, nonsense!" he ultimately concluded, after a third or fourth reading of Reb Feive's missive. "America makes a new man of every young fellow. There had not been a more miserable wretch than Tevke, the watchman; and yet when he recently came back from America for a visit, he looked like a prince. Let her go and be a
- 65. mother of children,as behooves a daughter of Israel. We must trust to God. The match does look like a Providential affair." Reb Peretz was a whole day in mustering courage for an explanation with Hanele. But when he had at last broached the subject to her, by means of rendering Feive's Hebrew letter into Yiddish, his undertaking proved easier of achievement than he had anticipated. Hanele was really a "true daughter of Israel," and this implies that her education was limited to the reading of a Yiddish version of the Five Books of Moses, and that her knowledge of the world did not extend beyond "Kropovetz and its goats," as the phrase runs in her native town. She was a taciturn, good-natured, and tractable girl, and her greatest pleasure was to be knitting fancy tablecloths and brooding over day-dreams. Moreover, the repeated appearance and disappearance of chosons, by recurrently unsettling her hitherto calm and easy heart, had left it in a state of perpetual unrest. She had not fallen in love with any of the young men who had sought her hand and her marriage portion, for, according to a rigid old rule of propriety to which her father clung, she never had been allowed the chance of interchanging a word with any of them, even while the suit was pending. Still, when a month passed without a shadchen putting in an appearance, she would often, when the latch gave a click, raise her eyes to the door in the eager hope that it would admit a member of that profession. In her reveries she now frequently dwelt on her girl friends who had married out of Kropovetz, and then her soul would be yearning and longing, she knew not after what. With all the tender affection which tied her to her family, with all her attachment to her native surroundings, her father's house became dreary and lonely to her; she grew tired of her home and homesick after the rest of the world. To be sure, the first intimation as to her marrying Rouvke Arbel shocked her, and on realizing the full meaning of the offer she dropped her head on her father's shoulder and burst into tears. But as Reb Peretz stroked her hair, while he presented the matter in an aspect which was even an improvement on Feive's plea, he gradually
- 66. hypnotized her intoa lighter mood, and she recalled Rouvke's photograph, which his mother had on several occasions flaunted before her. The match now assumed a somewhat romantic phase. She let her jaded imagination waft her away to an unknown far-off land, where she saw herself glittering with gold and pearls and nestling up to a masculine figure in sumptuous attire. It was a bewitching, thrilling scene only slightly marred by the dim outline of Rouvke in top-boots and sheepskin rising in the background. Ah, it was such a pity to have that taint on the otherwise fascinating picture! And, in order to remove the sickly blotch, Hanele essayed to rig Rouvke out in a "cut-away," stand-up collar, and necktie after the model of the photograph. But then her effort produced a total stranger with features she could not make out, while Rouvke Arbel, top-boots, sheepskin and all, seemed to have dodged the elegant attire and to remain aloof both from the stranger and the photograph. Well, it is not Rouvke, then, who is proposed to her, she settled, with the three images crowding each other in her mind. It is an entirely new man. Besides, who can tell what may transpire? Let her first get to America and then—who knows, but she may in truth marry another man, a nice young fellow who had never been her father's servant? And Hanele felt that such would be the case. At all events, did not Baske David, the flour merchant's daughter, marry a former blacksmith in America, and is she not happy? Ah, the letters she writes to her! "Say yes or no. Speak out, my little dove," Reb Peretz insisted, in conclusion of a second conversation on the same subject. "It is not my destiny which is to be decided. It is for you to say," he added, feeling that Hanele had no business to render any but an affirmative decision. "Yes," she at last whispered, drooping her head and bursting into a cry. The shadchen gave himself no rest, and letters sailed over the Atlantic by the dozen. In his first reply Reb Peretz took care to appear oscillating. His second contained a hint as to the attachment
- 67. which Hanele hadalways felt for Rouvke, whom they had treated like one of the family. There were also letters with remote allusions to money which Hanele would want for some dresses and to pay her way. And thus, with every message he penned, the conviction gained on Reb Peretz that his daughter would be happy in America, and that the match was really of Providential origin. These letters operated on Rouvke's heart as an ointment does on a wound, to cite his own illustration; and in spite of the money hints, which constituted the fly in this ointment, he felt happy. He thought of Hanele; he dreamed of her; and, above all, he thought and dreamed of the sensation which her departure from home would create at Kropovetz, and of his glory on her arrival in New York. "Good luck to you, Robert!" the peddlers repeatedly congratulated him. "Have you ever dreamed of becoming the son-in-law of Peretz the distiller? There should be no end to the treats which you ought to stand now." And Robert stood treat and was wreathed in chosonlike smiles. It was a busy day at Castle Garden. Several transatlantic steamers had arrived, and the railed inclosure within the vast shed was alive with a motley crowd of freshly landed steerage passengers. Outside, there was a cluster of empty merchandise trucks waiting for their human loads, while at a haughty distance from these stood a pair of highly polished carriages—quite a rare sight in front of the immigrant landing station. It was Rouvke who had engaged these superior vehicles. He had come in them with Reb Feive, and with two or three others of his fellow countrymen and brothers in business, to meet Hanele. He was dressed in his Saturday clothes and in a brand-new brown derby hat, and even wore a huge red rose which one of the party, a gallant custom peddler, had stuck into the lapel of his "cut- away" before starting.
- 68. The atmosphere ofthe barn-like garden was laden with nauseating odors of steerage and of carbolic acid, and reeking with human wretchedness. Leaning against the railing or sitting on their baggage, there were bevies of unkempt men and women in shabby dress of every cut and color, holding on to ragged, bulging parcels, baskets, or sacks, and staring at space with a look of forlorn, stupefied, and cowed resignation. The cry of children in their mothers' arms, blending in jarring discord with the gruff yells of the uniformed officers, jostling their way through the crowd, and with the general hum and buzz inside and outside the inclosure, made the scene as painful to the ear as it was to the eye and nostrils, and completed the impression of misery and desolation. Rouvke and his companions, among a swarm of other residents of the East Side, who, like themselves, had come to meet newly landed friends, stood gazing through the railing. Rouvke was nervously biting his finger-nails, and now and then brushing his new derby with his coat-sleeve or adjusting his necktie. Reb Feive was winding his sidelock about his finger, while the young peddlers were vying with each other in pleasantries appropriate to the situation. Our choson was lost in a tumult of emotions. He made repeated attempts at collecting his wits and devising a befitting form of welcome; he tried to figure to himself Hanele's present appearance and to forecast her conduct on first catching sight of him; he also essayed to analyze the whole situation and to think out a plan for the immediate future. But all his efforts fell flat. His thoughts were fragmentary, and no sooner had he laid hold of an idea or an image than it would flee from his mind again and his attention would, for spite, as it were, occupy itself with the merest trifle, such as the size of the whiskers of one of the officers or the sea-biscuit at which an immigrant urchin was nibbling. At last Rouvke's heart gave a leap. His eyes had fallen on Hanele. She was still more beautiful and charming than before. Instead of the spare and childish-looking girl whom he had left at Kropovetz,
- 69. there stood beforehim a stately, well-formed young woman of twenty-five. "Ha—Ha—Hanele!" he gasped out, all but melting away with emotion, and suddenly feeling, not like Robert Friedman, but like Rouvke Arbel. Hanele turned her head toward him, but she did not see him. So at least it seemed, for instead of pushing her way to the part of the railing where he stood, she started back and obliterated herself in the crowd. Presently her name was called, together with other names, and she emerged from a stream of fellow immigrants. More dead than alive, Rouvke ran forward to meet her; but he had advanced two steps when his legs refused to proceed, and his face became blank with amazement. For, behold, snugly supporting Hanele's arm, there was a young man in spectacles and in a seedy gray uniform overcoat of a Russian collegian, with its brass buttons superseded by new ones of black celluloid. The pair marched up to Rouvke, she with her eyes fixed at the floor, as she clung to her companion, and the collegian with his head raised in timid defiance. "How do you do, Rouven?" she began. "This is Gospodin[15] Levinsky —my choson. Do not take it ill, Rouven. I am not to blame, as true as I am a child of Israel. You see, it is my Providential match, and I could not help it," she rattled off in a trembling voice and like an embarrassed schoolboy reciting a lesson which he has gotten well by heart. "I'll pay you every copeck, you can rest assured," the collegian interposed, turning as white as a sheet. "I have a rich brother in Buffalo." Hanele had met the young man in the steerage of the Dutch vessel which brought them across the ocean; and they passed a fortnight
- 70. there, walking orsitting together on deck, and sharing the weird overawing whispers of the waves, the stern thumping of the engine, and the soothing smiles of the moon—that skillfulest of shadchens in general, and on ship's deck in particular. The long and short of it is that the matchmaking luminary had cut Reb Feive out of his job. Hanele's explanation at first stunned Rouvke, and he stood for some time eyeing her with a grin of stupid distraction. But presently, upon recovering his senses, he turned as red as fire, and making a face like that of a child when suddenly robbed of its toy, he wailed out in a husky voice: "I want my hundred and fifty dollars back!" And then in English:— "I call a politzman. I vant my hoondered an' fifty dollar!" "Ai, ai—murderess! murderess!" Reb Feive burst out at Hanele. "I am going to get your father to come over here, ai, ai!" he lamented, all but bursting into tears with rage. And presently, in caressing tones:— "Listen to me, Hanele! I know you are a good and God-fearing Jewish girl. Fie! drop that abominable beggar. Leave that gentile-like shaven mug, I tell you. Rouven is your Providential match. Look at him, the prince that he is! You will live like a queen with him, you will roll in gold and jewels, Hanele!" But Hanele only clung to the collegian's arm the faster, and the two were about to leave the Garden, when Rouvke grasped his successful rival by the lapels of his overcoat, crying as he did so: "Politzman! Politzman!" The young couple looked a picture of helplessness. But at this juncture a burly shaven-faced "runner" of an immigrant hotel, who had been watching the scene, sprang to their rescue. Brushing Rouvke aside with a thrust of his mighty arm, accompanied by a rasping "Git out, or I'll punch your pockmarked nose, ye monkey!" he marched Hanele and her choson away, leaving Rouvke staring as
- 71. if he wereat a loss to realize the situation, while Reb Feive, violently wringing his hands, gasped, "Ai! ai! ai!" and the young peddlers bandied whispered jokes.
- 72. A SWEAT-SHOP ROMANCE LeizerLipman was one of those contract tailors who are classed by their hands under the head of "cockroaches," which—translating the term into lay English—means that he ran a very small shop, giving employment to a single team of one sewing-machine operator, one baster, one finisher, and one presser. The shop was one of a suite of three rooms on the third floor of a rickety old tenement house on Essex Street, and did the additional duty of the family's kitchen and dining-room. It faced a dingy little courtyard, and was connected by a windowless bedroom with the parlor, which commanded the very heart of the Jewish markets. Bundles of cloth, cut to be made into coats, littered the floor, lay in chaotic piles by one of the walls, cumbered Mrs. Lipman's kitchen table and one or two chairs, and formed, in a corner, an improvised bed upon which a dirty two-year-old boy, Leizer's heir apparent, was enjoying his siesta. Dangling against the door or scattered among the bundles, there were cooking utensils, dirty linen, Lipman's velvet skull-cap, hats, shoes, shears, cotton-spools, and whatnot. A red-hot kitchen stove and a blazing grate full of glowing flat-irons combined to keep up the overpowering temperature of the room, and helped to justify its nickname of sweat-shop in the literal sense of the epithet. Work was rather scarce, but the designer of the Broadway clothing firm, of whose army of contractors Lipman was a member, was a second cousin to the latter's wife, and he saw to it that his relative's husband was kept busy. And so operations in Leizer's shop were in full swing. Heyman, the operator, with his bared brawny arms,
- 73. pushed away atan unfinished coat, over which his head, presenting to view a wealth of curly brown hair, hung like an eagle bent on his prey. He swayed in unison to the rhythmic whirr of his machine, whose music, supported by the energetic thumps of Meyer's press- iron, formed an orchestral accompaniment to the sonorous and plaintive strains of a vocal duet performed by Beile, the finisher girl, and David, the baster. Leizer was gone to the Broadway firm's offices, while Zlate, his wife, was out on a prolonged haggling expedition among the tradeswomen of Hester Street. This circumstance gave the hands a respite from the restrictions usually placed on their liberties by the presence of the "boss" and the "Missis," and they freely beguiled the tedium and fatigue of their work, now by singing, now by a bantering match at the expense of their employer and his wife, or of each other. "Well, I suppose you might as well quit," said Meyer, a chubby, red- haired, freckled fellow of forty, emphasizing his remark by an angry stroke of his iron. "You have been over that song now fifty times without taking breath. You make me tired." "Don't you like it? Stuff up your ears, then," Beile retorted, without lifting her head from the coat in her lap. "Why, I do like it, first-rate and a half," Meyer returned, "but when you keep your mouth shut I like it better still, see?" The silvery tinkle of Beile's voice, as she was singing, thrilled Heyman with delicious melancholy, gave him fresh relish for his work, and infused additional activity into his limbs: and as her singing was interrupted by the presser's gibe, he involuntarily stopped his machine with that annoying feeling which is experienced by dancers when brought to an unexpected standstill by an abrupt pause of the music. "And you?"—he addressed himself to Meyer, facing about on his chair with an irritated countenance. "It's all right enough when you
- 74. speak, but itis much better when you hold your tongue. Don't mind him, Beile. Sing away!" he then said to the girl, his dazzlingly fair face relaxing and his little eyes shutting into a sweet smile of self- confident gallantry. "You had better stick to your work, Heyman. Why, you might have made half a cent the while," Meyer fired back, with an ironical look, which had reference to the operator's reputation of being a niggardly fellow, who overworked himself, denied himself every pleasure, and grew fat by feasting his eyes on his savings-bank book. A sharp altercation ensued, which drifted to the subject of Heyman's servile conduct toward his employer. "It was you, wasn't it," Meyer said, "who started that collection for a birthday present for the boss? Of course, we couldn't help chipping in. Why is David independent?" "Did I compel you?" Heyman rejoined. "And am I to blame that it was to me that the boss threw out the hint about that present? It is so slack everywhere, and you ought to thank God for the steady job you have here," he concluded, pouncing down upon the coat on his machine. David, who had also cut short his singing, kept silently plying his needle upon pieces of stuff which lay stretched on his master's dining-table. Presently he paused to adjust his disheveled jet-black hair, with his fingers for a comb, and to wipe the perspiration from his swarthy, beardless and typically Israelitic face with his shirt- sleeve. While this was in progress, his languid hazel eyes were fixed on the finisher girl. She instinctively became conscious of his gaze, and raised her head from the needle. Her fresh buxom face, flushed with the heat of the room and with exertion, shone full upon the young baster. Their eyes met. David colored, and, to conceal his embarrassment, he asked: "Well, is he going to raise your wages?"
- 75. Beile nodded affirmatively,and again plunged her head into her work. "He is? So you will now get five dollars a week. I am afraid you will be putting on airs now, won't you?" "Do you begrudge me? Then I am willing to swap wages with you. I'll let you have my five dollars, and I'll take your twelve dollars every week." Lipman's was a task shop, and, according to the signification which the term has in the political economy of the sweating world, his operator, baster, and finisher, while nominally engaged at so much a week, were in reality paid by the piece, the economical week being determined by a stipulated quantity of made-up coats rather than by a fixed number of the earth's revolutions around its axis; for the sweat-shop day will not coincide with the solar day unless a given amount of work be accomplished in its course. As to the presser, he is invariably a piece-worker, pure and simple. For a more lucid account of the task system in the tailoring branch, I beg to refer the reader to David, although his exposition happens to be presented rather in the form of a satire on the subject. Indeed, David, while rather inclined to taciturnity, was an inveterate jester, and what few remarks he indulged in during his work would often cause boisterous merriment among his shop-mates, although he delivered them with a nonchalant manner and with the same look of good-humored irony, mingled in strange harmony with a general expression of gruffness, which his face usually wore. "My twelve dollars every week?" David echoed. "Oh, I see; you mean a week of twelve days!" And his needle resumed its duck-like sport in the cloth. "How do you make it out?" Meyer demanded, in order to elicit a joke from the witty young man by his side.
- 76. "Of course, youdon't know how to make that out. But ask Heyman or Beile. The three of us do." "Tell him, then, and he will know too," Beile urged, laughing in advance at the expected fun. A request coming from the finisher was—yet unknown to herself— resistless with David, and in the present instance it loosened his tongue. "Well, I get twelve dollars a week, and Heyman fourteen. Now a working week has six days, but—hem—that 'but' gets stuck in my throat—but a day is neither a Sunday nor a Monday nor anything unless we make twelve coats. The calendars are a lot of liars." "What do you mean?" "They say a day has twenty-four hours. That's a bluff. A day has twelve coats." Beile's rapturous chuckle whetted his appetite for persiflage, and he went on:— "They read the Tuesday Psalm in the synagogue this morning, but I should have read the Monday one." "Why?" "You see, Meyer's wife will soon come up with his dinner, and here I have still two coats to make of the twelve that I got yesterday. So it's still Monday with me. My Tuesday won't begin before about two o'clock this afternoon." "How much will you make this week?" Meyer questioned. "I don't expect to finish more than four days' work by the end of the week, and will only get eight dollars on Friday—that is, provided the Missis has not spent our wages by that time. So when it's Friday I'll call it Wednesday, see?"
- 77. "When I ammarried," he added, after a pause, "and the old woman asks me for Sabbath expenses, I'll tell her it is only Wednesday—it isn't yet Friday—and I have no money to give her." David relapsed into silence, but mutely continued his burlesque, hopping from subject to subject. David thought himself a very queer fellow. He often wondered at the pranks which his own imagination was in the habit of playing, and at the grotesque combinations it frequently evolved. As he now stood, leaning forward over his work, he was striving to make out how it was that Meyer reminded him of the figure "7." "What nonsense!" he inwardly exclaimed, branding himself for a crank. "And what does Heyman look like?" his mind queried, as though for spite. He contemplated the operator askance, and ran over all the digits of the Arabic system, and even the whole Hebrew alphabet, in quest of a counterpart to the young man, but failed to find anything suitable. "His face would much better become a girl," he at last decided, and mentally proceeded to envelop Heyman's head in Beile's shawl. But the proceeding somehow stung him, and he went on to meditate upon the operator's chunky nose. "No, that nose is too ugly for a girl. It wants a little planing. It's an unfinished job, as it were. But for that nose Heyman would really be the nice fellow they say he is. His snow-white skin—his elegant heavy mustache—yes, if he did not have that nose he would be all right," he maliciously joked in his heart. "And I, too, would be all right if Heyman were noseless," he added, transferring his thoughts to Beile, and wondering why she looked so sweet. "Why, her nose is not much of a beauty, either. Entirely too straight, and too—too foolish. Her eyes look old and as if constantly on the point of bursting into tears. Ah, but then her lips—that kindly smile of theirs, coming out of one corner of her mouth!" And a strong impulse seized him to throw himself on those lips and to kiss them, which he did mentally, and which shot an electric current through his whole frame. And at this Beile's old-looking eyes both charmed and pierced him to the heart, and her nose, far from looking foolish, seemed to
- 78. contemplate him contemptuously,triumphantly, and knowingly, as if it had read his thoughts. While this was going on in David's brain and heart, Beile was taken up with Heyman and with their mutual relations. His attentions to her were an open secret. He did not go out of his way to conceal them. On the contrary, he regularly escorted her home after work, and took her out to balls and picnics—a thing involving great sacrifices to a fellow who trembled over every cent he spent, and who was sure to make up for these losses to his pocket-book by foregoing his meals. While alone with her in the hallway of her mother's residence, his voice would become so tender, so tremulous, and on several occasions he even addressed her by the endearing form of Beilinke. And yet all this had been going on now for over three months, and he had not as much as alluded to marriage, nor even bought her the most trifling present. Her mother made life a burden to her, and urged the point-blank declaration of the alternative between a formal engagement and an arrest for breach of promise. Beile would have died rather than make herself the heroine of such a sensation; and, besides, the idea of Heyman handcuffed to a police detective was too terrible to entertain even for a moment. She loved him. She liked his blooming face, his gentleman-like mustache, the quaint jerk of his head, as he walked; she was fond of his company; she was sure she was in love with him: her confidant, her fellow country girl and playmate, who had recently married Meyer, the presser, had told her so. But somehow she felt disappointed. She had imagined love to be a much sweeter thing. She had thought that a girl in love admired everything in the object of her affections, and was blind to all his faults. She had heard that love was something like a perpetual blissful fluttering of the heart.
- 79. "I feel asif something was melting here," a girl friend who was about to be married once confided to her, pointing to her heart. "You see, it aches and yet it is so sweet at the same time." And here she never feels anything melting, nor can she help disliking some things about Heyman. His smile sometimes appears to her fulsome. Ah, if he did not shut his eyes as he does when smiling! That he is so slow to spend money is rather one of the things she likes in him. If he ever marries her she will be sure to get every cent of his wages. But then when they are together at a ball he never goes up to the bar to treat her to a glass of soda, as the other fellows do to their girls, and all he offers her is an apple or a pear, which he generally stops to buy on the street on their way to the dancing-hall. Is she in love at all? Maybe she is mistaken? But no! he is after all so dear to her. She must have herself to blame. It is not in vain that her mother calls her a whimpering, nagging thing, who gives no peace to herself nor to anybody around her. But why does he not come out with his declaration? Is it because he is too stingy to wish to support a wife? Has he been making a fool of her? What does he take her for, then? In fairness to Heyman, it must be stated that on the point of his intentions, at least, her judgment of him was without foundation, and her misgivings gratuitous. Pecuniary considerations had nothing to do with his slowness in proposing to her. And if she could have watched him and penetrated his mind at the moments when he examined his bank-book,—which he did quite often,—she would have ascertained that little images of herself kept hovering before his eyes between the figures of its credit columns, and that the sum total conjured up to him a picture of prospective felicity with her for a central figure. Poor thing; she did not know that when he lingeringly fondled her hand, on taking his leave in the hallway, the proposal lay on the tip of his tongue, and that lacking the strength to relieve himself of its burden he every time left her, consoling himself that the moment was inopportune, and that "to-morrow he would surely settle it." She did not know that only two days ago the idea had occurred to him to
- 80. have recourse tothe aid of a messenger in the form of a lady's watch, and that while she now sat worrying lest she was being made a fool of, the golden emissary lay in Heyman's vest-pocket, throbbing in company with his heart with impatient expectation of the evening hour, which had been fixed for the delivery of its message. "I shall let mother speak to him," Beile resolved, in her musings over her needle. She went on to picture the scene, but at this point her meditations were suddenly broken by something clutching and pulling at her hair. It was her employer's boy. He had just got up from his after-dinner nap, and, for want of any other occupation, he passed his dirty little hand into her raven locks. "He is practicing to be a boss," observed David, whose attention was attracted to the spectacle by the finisher's shriek. Beile's voice brought Heyman to his feet, and disentangling the little fellow's fingers from the girl's hair, he fell to "plastering his nasty cheeks for him," as he put it. At this juncture the door opened to admit the little culprit's father. Heyman skulked away to his seat, and, burying his head in his work, he proceeded to drown, in the whir-r, whir-r of his machine, the screams of the boy, who would have struck a much higher key had his mamma happened on the spot. Lipman took off his coat, substituted his greasy velvet skull-cap for his derby, and lighting a cigar with an air of good-natured business- like importance, he advanced to Meyer's corner and fell to examining a coat. "And what does he look like?" David asked himself, scrutinizing his task-master. "Like a broom with its stick downward," he concluded to his own satisfaction. "And his snuff-box?"—meaning Lipman's huge nose—"A perfect fiddle!—And his mouth? Deaf-mutes usually have such mouths. And his beard? He has entirely too much of it, and it's too pretty for his face. It must have got there by mistake."
- 81. Presently the dooragain flew open, and Mrs. Lipman, heavily loaded with parcels and panting for breath, came waddling in with an elderly couple in tow. "Greenhorns," Meyer remarked. "Must be fellow townspeople of hers —lately arrived." "She looks like a tea-kettle, and she is puffing like one, too," David thought, after an indifferent gaze at the newcomers, looking askance at his stout, dowdyish little "Missis." "No," he then corrected himself, "she rather resembles a broom with its stick out. That's it! And wouldn't it be a treat to tie a stick to her head and to sweep the floor with the horrid thing! And her mouth? Why, it makes me think she does nothing but sneeze." "Here is Leizer! Leizer, look at the guests I have brought you!" Zlate exclaimed, as she threw down her bundles. "Be seated, Reb Avrom; be seated, Basse. This is our factory," she went on, with a smile of mixed welcome and triumph, after the demonstrative greetings were over. "It is rather too small, isn't it? but we are going to move into larger and better quarters." Meyer was not mistaken. Zlate's visitors had recently arrived from her birthplace, a poor town in Western Russia, where they had occupied a much higher social position than their present hostess, and Mrs. Lipman, coming upon them on Hester Street, lost no time in inviting them to her house, in order to overwhelm them with her American achievements. "Come, I want to show you my parlor," Mrs. Lipman said, beckoning to her country people, and before they were given an opportunity to avail themselves of the chairs which she had offered them, they were towed into the front room. When the procession returned, Leizer, in obedience to an order from his wife, took Reb Avrom in charge and proceeded to initiate him into the secrets of the "American style of tailoring."
- 82. "Oh, my!" Zlatesuddenly ejaculated, with a smile. "I came near forgetting to treat. Beilke!" she then addressed herself to the finisher girl in a tone of imperious nonchalance, "here is a nickel. Fetch two bottles of soda from the grocery." "Don't go, Beile!" David whispered across his table, perceiving the girl's reluctance. It was not unusual for Beile to go on an errand for the wife of her employer, though she always did it unwillingly, and merely for fear of losing her place; but then Zlate generally exacted these services as a favor. In the present instance, however, Beile felt mortally offended by her commanding tone, and the idea of being paraded before the strangers as a domestic cut her to the quick, as a stream of color rushing into her face indicated. Nevertheless the prospect of having to look for a job again persuaded her to avoid trouble with Zlate, and she was about to reach out her hand for the coin, when David's exhortation piqued her sense of self-esteem, and she went on with her sewing. Heyman, who, being interrupted in his work by the visitor's inspection, was a witness of the scene, at this point turned his face from it, and cringing by his machine, he made a pretense of busying himself with the shuttle. His heart shrank with the awkwardness of his situation, and he nervously grated his teeth and shut his eyes, awaiting still more painful developments. His veins tingled with pity for his sweetheart and with deadly hatred for David. What could he do? he apologized to himself. Isn't it foolish to risk losing a steady job at this slack season on account of such a trifle as fetching up a bottle of soda? What business has David to interfere? "You are not deaf, are you? I say go and bring some soda, quick!" Mrs. Lipman screamed, fearing lest she was going too far. "Don't budge, Beile!" the baster prompted, with fire in his eyes. Beile did not. "I say go!" Zlate thundered, reddening like a beet, to use a phrase in vogue with herself.
- 83. "Never mind, Zlate,"Basse interposed, to relieve the embarrassing situation. "We just had tea." "Never mind. It is not worth the trouble," Avrom chimed in. But this only served to lash Zlate into a greater fury, and unmindful of consequences, she strode up to the cause of her predicament, and tearing the coat out of her hands, she squeaked out:— "Either fetch the soda, or leave my shop at once!" Heyman was about to say, to do something, he knew not exactly what, but his tongue seemed seized with palsy, the blood turned chill in his veins, and he could neither speak nor stir. Leizer, who was of a quiet, peaceful disposition, and very much under the thumb of his wife, stood nervously smiling and toying with his beard. David grew ashen pale, and trembling with rage he said aloud and in deliberate accents:— "Don't mind her, Beile, and never worry. Come along. I'll find you a better job. This racket won't work, Missis. Your friends see through it, anyhow, don't you?" he addressed himself to the newcomers. "She wanted to brag to you. That's what she troubled you for. She showed off her parlor carpet to you, didn't she? But did she tell you that it had been bought on the installment plan, and that the custom-peddler threatened to take it away unless she paid more regularly?" "Leizer! are you—are you drunk?" Mrs. Lipman gasped, her face distorted with rage and desperation. "Get out of here!" Leizer said, in a tone which would have been better suited to a cordial invitation. The command was unnecessary, however, for by this time David was buttoning up his overcoat, and had his hat on. Involuntarily following
- 84. his example, Beilealso dressed to go. And as she stood in her new beaver cloak and freshly trimmed large old hat by the side of her discomfited commander, Basse reflected that it was the finisher girl who looked like a lady, with Zlate for her servant, rather than the reverse. "See that you have our wages ready for Friday, and all the arrears, too!" was David's parting shot as the two left the room with a defiant slam of the door. "That's like America!" Zlate remarked, with an attempt at a scornful smile. "The meanest beggar girl will put on airs." "Why should one be ordered about like that? She is no servant, is she?" Heyman murmured, addressing the corner of the room, and fell to at his machine to smother his misery. When his day's work was over, Heyman's heart failed him to face Beile, and although he was panting to see her, he did not call at her house. On the following morning he awoke with a headache, and this he used as a pretext to himself for going to bed right after supper. On the next evening he did betake himself to the Division Street tenement house, where his sweetheart lived with her mother on the top floor, but on coming in front of the building his courage melted away. Added to his cowardly part in the memorable scene of two days before, there now was his apparent indifference to the finisher, as manifested by his two evenings' absence at such a critical time. He armed himself with a fib to explain his conduct. But all in vain; he could not nerve himself up to the terrible meeting. And so day after day passed, each day increasing the barrier to the coveted visit. At last, one evening, about a fortnight after the date of Mrs. Lipman's fiasco, Heyman, forgetting to lose courage, as it were,
- 85. briskly mounted thefour flights of stairs of the Division Street tenement. As he was about to rap for admission he was greeted by a sharp noise within of something, like a china plate or a bowl, being dashed to pieces against the very door which he was going to open. The noise was followed by merry voices: "Good luck! Good luck!" and there was no mistaking its meaning. There was evidently an engagement party inside. The Rabbi had just read the writ of betrothment, and it was the mutual pledges of the contracting parties which were emphasized by the "breaking of the plate." Presently Heyman heard exclamations which dissipated his every doubt as to the identity of the chief actors in the ceremony which had just been completed within. "Good luck to you, David! Good luck to you, Beile! May you live to a happy old age together!" "Feige, why don't you take some cake? Don't be so bashful!" "Here is luck!" came through the door, piercing a muffled hum inside. Heyman was dumbfounded, and with his head swimming, he made a hasty retreat. Ever since the tragi-comical incident at Lipman's shop, Heyman was not present to Beile's thoughts except in the pitiful, cowering attitude in which he had sat through that awful scene by his machine. She was sure she hated him now. And yet her heart was, during the first few days, constantly throbbing with the expectation of his visit; and as she settled in her mind that even if he came she would have nothing to do with him, her deeper consciousness seemed to say, with a smile of conviction: "Oh no, you know you would not refuse him. You wouldn't risk to remain an old maid, would you?" The idea of his jilting her harrowed her day and night. Did he avail himself of her leaving Lipman's shop to back out of the proposal which was naturally expected of him, but which he never perhaps contemplated? Did he make game of her?
- 86. When a weekhad elapsed without Heyman's putting in an appearance, she determined to let her mother see a lawyer about breach-of-promise proceedings. But an image, whose outlines had kept defining themselves in her heart for several days past, overruled this decision. It was the image of a pluckier fellow than Heyman—of one with whom there was more protection in store for a wife, who inspired her with more respect and confidence, and, what is more, who seemed on the point of proposing to her. It was the image of David. The young baster pursued his courtship with a quiet persistency and a suppressed fervor which was not long in winning the girl's heart. He found work for her and for himself in the same shop; saw her home every evening; regularly came after supper to take her out for a walk, in the course of which he would treat her to candy and invite her to a coffee saloon,—a thing which Heyman had never done;—kept her chuckling over his jokes; and at the end of ten days, while sitting by her side in Central Park, one night, he said, in reply to her remark that it was so dark that she knew not where she was:— "I'll tell you where you are—guess." "Where?" "Here, in my heart, and keeping me awake nights, too. Say, Beile, what have I ever done to you to have my rest disturbed by you in that manner?" Her heart was beating like a sledge-hammer. She tried to laugh, as she returned:— "I don't know—You can never stop making fun, can you?" "Fun? Do you want me to cry? I will, gladly, if I only know that you will agree to have an engagement party," he rejoined, deeply blushing under cover of the darkness. "When?" she questioned, the word crossing her lips before she knew it.
- 87. "On my part,to-morrow."
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