"Enough of this"

After a blogobreak of quite some months, it seems apposite that these online musings should resume on a day when higher education – at least tangentially – dominated the media headlines. Unfortunately, the coverage was not of a hue that would be desired less than one week after the government’s strategy for the internationalisation of Irish education was published. The choreography of the day is by now well-rehearsed, so there is no need to replay here any of the crucial scenes.

It does seem, however, short-sighted by Fine Gael to refuse a pairing to the Tánaiste on this occasion, especially when the presence of senior government ministers has proven so crucial in the past to education and trade missions. In equal measure, we could question what the government was attempting to do by suggesting that Mary Coughlan would be in the Dáil on Wednesday to answer questions about Fás and a host of other matters. If, as it seems, this trade expedition was in planning over the past 18 months, then surely it should have been possible to reschedule her time in the Dáil hot seat. Whatever their personal merits, it should not have fallen to a junior minister to answer those particular questions. On this – as on so many other topics – one cannot look past Seán O’Rourke’s interviews on the News at One with Enda Kenny and Batt O’Keeffe. His probing of the politicians – ‘Haven’t you gone a bit far?’ and ‘It looks like there’s a bit of a dodge going on’ – captured the frustration of the man and woman on the street.

Now that the Minister has decided that she is going to travel to the US after all, let us hope that the controversy does not follow her across the Atlantic. The Education Ireland brand is still being nurtured in international territories; it needs supportive action from all of our politicians and other stakeholders, if it is to thrive and survive.

Higher Education and the Irish Diaspora

St Patrick’s week offers an unparalleled annual opportunity to focus global attention on this small island. While there may be some misgivings over the dispersal of our government ministers to the four corners, in truth, for our senior politicians not to grasp the opportunity to represent Ireland in this positive fashion, would be a far greater dereliction of duty.

For the second year in a row, the Taoiseach met with President Obama in the White House, and there appears to be genuine warmth between the two men. Maybe it’s the Offaly connection, although I sense that Barack Obama is very much aware of the contribution which generations of Irish people have made to the US.

One of Brian Cowen’s duties, while in Washington was to launch the Ireland Homecoming Study Programme, which aims to encourage the descendents of Irish nationals and non-resident passport holders living outside the EU to return to Ireland for their higher education studies.

The programme is an initiative of Institutes of Technology Ireland, with eight IoTs participating: Athlone, Blanchardstown, Carlow, Cork, Dundalk, Galway/Mayo, Sligo and Waterford. It aims to attract over 500 students over the next three years and is expected to contribute an estimated €10m to the Irish economy.

The IHSP will offer tuition costs to qualifying students of up to 40 per cent less than the standard rate for non-EU students. The fee for the 2010/2011 intake will be €5,950. Students from overseas will be able to undertake undergraduate degree courses or shorter study courses.

This is, of course, just one part of Irish HEIs’ strategy to attract a greater cohort of international students; and indeed these days seem to be marked by a plethora of other policy and plan launches (more about these later) aimed at internationalising Irish education. What is encouraging, however, is the amount of hits showing up on Google for the launch. The coming months will tell a lot in terms of the success of the programme.

Developing relationships with Saudi Arabia

The past century has seen the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia emerge from being an underdeveloped desert kingdom to becoming one of the wealthiest nations in the Middle East. The country sits on more than one-quarter of the world’s known oil reserves and is recognised as one of the Gulf states best equipped to drive forward a rapid rate of planned expansion.

In April last year, Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment, Mary Coughlan, led an Enterprise Ireland trade mission of 64 Irish companies and organisations to Saudi. Trade between the two countries has increased substantially in recent years. In 2009, Irish exports to the Kingdom were worth over €400 million and there are more than 120 Irish SMEs operating in the Middle Eastern country. Some months later, education minister, Batt O’Keeffe attended the opening of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Jeddah, which has identified four key strategic research themes: resources, energy and environment; biosciences and bioengineering; materials science and engineering; and applied mathematics and computational science.

Also reflecting this strengthening relationship, the first Saudi Arabian embassy to Ireland opened its doors in September 2009. Speaking at the time, the new Ambassador, Abdulaziz Aldriss, said that he would “make every possible effort to enhance and develop this relationship and encourage trade and investment opportunities for the people in both countries.” Ambassador Aldriss visited AIT this week, accompanied by HRH Prince Turki Bin Nawaf Al Saud and other members of the Saudi diplomatic team.

The day proved a tremendous success in terms of enabling all parties to become familiar with one another and in building the personal relationships that are so central to international partnerships. The ambassador had an opportunity to visit some of AIT’s research and innovation facilities, the new engineering and informatics complex, as well as meet with the 25 Saudi students who have been attending AIT since September last year. The students who are undertaking full-time undergraduate programmes in engineering, science and business, have integrated remarkably well into campus life and especially into life in the Irish midlands.

Next week, accompanied by the presidents of GMIT and WIT, I will have the opportunity to continue discussions with our education partners in Riyadh. While we are still in the initial stages of building relationships with the Saudi ministry for higher education, the success of the ambassador’s visit during the week and the experiences of our initial cohort of full-time Saudi students augurs well for the future.