Higher education in Ireland has undergone a rapid expansion in past decades, with an associated increase in research funding and enterprise engagement, but this has been more recently undermined by austerity measures resulting from the economic recession in the end of the last decade. Discussion around the restructuring of the Irish Institutes of Technology (IoT) sector began following the OECD review of Irish higher education (2004), which recommended enhancing research infrastructure and noted the cost implications of maintaining a large number of smaller-sized higher education institutions. The National Strategy for Irish Higher Education to 2030 (2011), also referred to as the Hunt Report, was set out in the context of austerity and proposed merging the Irish Institutes of Technology (IoTs) into a smaller number of stronger institutions, followed by the potential establishment of Technological Universities (TUs).
As Ireland enters a period of economic recovery, rationalisation measures are becoming secondary to the efforts aimed at enhancing the IoT sector and enabling it to better respond to the needs of the modern society. Potential Technological Universities would take on additional functions, including building research capacity – an aim reflected in the Technological Universities Bill 2015. This paper provides a review of some of the reasons behind the restructuring internationally, and how IoTs’ main characteristics compare with institutions of similar standing in other European countries. The role of higher education today is reviewed, along with the progression of research development in Ireland.
Some implications of Technological Universities are discussed, including their potential contribution to fostering research and development in Ireland, particularly in the field of applied research – but also the potential drift of vocational mission in the TUs, challenges associated with TU’s additional functions, and how academic work may be changing in the newly formed institutions. It is argued that further consideration of these and other implications in developing the TUs is needed through engagement with stakeholders, to enhance the outcomes for the students, regional communities, and society as a whole.