The economic impact of universities
For those who are sceptical about the capacity of universities to make a difference to the economy, a study has just been published that, in the British context, puts this into figures. The report, The Impact of Universities on the UK Economy, is published by Universities UK and is based on research conducted by a team working in the University of Strathclyde.
The key finding of the study is that universities annually contribute £59 billion to the UK economy; that would be the equivalent of £7 billion in Ireland, if the contribution of Irish universities were on average the same as that of British ones. The study also shows the contribution universities make as employers and investors on local communities, and their contribution to exports.
There are still people who claim not to have evidence of the significance of universities to the national well-being and to trade and business. This report gives strong (if UK-based) support to the idea that the existence of strong universities is one of the key mechanisms for securing sustainable economic growth. In Ireland, we need to develop a similar mindset, and fast.
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November 5, 2009 at 9:57 am
I think that universities have a key role to play in economic development and many of the benefits to society are not quantifiable. If a university environment can create a positive culture of its own then that feeds into the performace of the larger economy. Maastricht Univerity in The Netherlands has a unique problem-based way of teaching which stimulates the upside down mentality needed to forster creativity. The new university colleges in Holland are creaming off the academic elite and giving them a rich learning environment where they can find their own areas of strength before specialization. Again, I think that that is creating the environment for excellence in the workplace that the Dutch economy needs going forward.
In Ireland I would like to see an Irish speaking university akin to Abo Akademi for the Swedish speakers in Finland. For Ireland to be innovative it needs to be different and having a university teaching only in the national language acn only help to generate new ideas not dominated by US and UK thinking. It is not coincidental that media like TG4 and Nós magazine are far more innovative than the copycat English language media in Ireland.
November 5, 2009 at 2:07 pm
Aidan, as you have already said, DCU has the Fiontar School that teaches entirely through Irish – and indeed the purpose behind its establishment was to achieve the kind of student response that you describe. I remain totally committed to it. But I would have to point out that it’s a hard task getting students to apply. Once they do, they perform wonderfully, and I am really proud of what the School does. But there would be no chance at all persuading enough students to do this to make up a viable university.
November 5, 2009 at 2:33 pm
That is partly because of the fact that the choice of courses in Irish is too limited and, of course, part of the general disinterest many Irish people have in all things to do with the language.
I don’t imagine that a full Irish speaking university would be very big to start with but all of these gaelscoileanna children should not be pushed into English language education because of the lack of options in what is, after all, Ireland’s firts language.
From a personal point of view I like the idea that my kids might some day be able to go back to the fatherland and do an Erasmus exchange studying through Irish. It is hard enough explaining to my children why I am speaking to them in English and not Irish (how does one explain the mass collective linguistic suicide committed by one’s forefathers?).
November 5, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Aidan, regarding ‘linguistic suicide’: you can go all around Europe now, and only about 60% of people will be talking a language that was spoken 200 years ago by their ancestors (even allowing for linguistic changes that occur in a normal development). My ancestral language is Polish. I don’t speak it at all. That is what happens. The question we need to ask is whether Irish needs to be used to maintain an understanding of who the Irish are as a people. The answer of the Irish people to that question is not negative, but it is hugely ambivalent.
November 5, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Most languages that were exterminated did not get the privilege of being the first language of a state. The fact that you do not speak Polish reflects a choice made by generations before you, many Germans speak Polish because of their family (look at the football team with Klose and Podalski, they speak Polish to each other on the field, Klose is bringing his children up speaking Polish at home).
Still languages do get lost if parents make no effort to retain them.
The Irish situation was quite different because, idiotically enough, countless people just stopped speaking to their kids in Irish. That is what happened four and five generations ago in my family. They gave up their own language in their own country, not after moving to Brooklyn.
The parents schooling children through Irish are helping right that great wrong. Those children deserve the chance to study whatever they want through Irish. At the end of the day what was partition for if the Irish state cannot protect its own language?
November 5, 2009 at 11:18 am
Hi there. There is such an institution in the form of Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge, hosted within NUI Galway but working entirely through the Irish language offering a wide range of programmes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels and using a range of technologies and local outreach centres across the entire Western seabord from Kerry to Donegal.
For more info
http://www.nuigalway.ie/acadamh/
November 5, 2009 at 11:42 am
Yes, I heard about that before but most people who go to NUI Galway are schooled in English. There are also courses in DCU through Irish. I actually never heard a word of Irish spoken in either place (admittedly I have not visited either since the 1990s) and I visited quite a few times having sisters at both institutions.
I am sure that things are different within the context of the Irish speaking courses but it is not the same as Abo Akademi which is a full Swedish language university in a majority Finnish speaking city.
November 5, 2009 at 12:07 pm
So is NUI,Galway. There is an active expectation that all members of College can operate within the first language. Further, ’til lately there was a requirement when appointing members of faculty that they could teach through Irish. This has been relaxed somewhat lately.
November 5, 2009 at 2:11 pm
Vincent,
In all honest I know many many people who studied in Galway who cannot conduct a simple conversation in Irish. This requirement that staff can speak Irish means nothing unless they only speak Irish. I can speak Polish but at work I only use English and Dutch so my ability to speak Polish is irrelevant.
November 5, 2009 at 4:29 pm
@Vincent: “There is an active expectation that all members of College can operate within the first language”; this is no longer the case and for roughly the reason Aidan outlined, it was considered better to have a academy, the acadamh, within the university offering courses in Irish, albeit for a more limited range of programmes, than to have a nominal, but poorly observed, Irish language requirement for all staff.