W1B-030 TCD - Moving house-0.txt
7th March, 1991 Mr. J. Hayden, Secretary, Higher Education Authority, 21 Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin 2.

Dear Mr, Hayden, I enclose a document on 'Duration of Courses' as I promised you earlier this week.

You will see that the College is firmly opposed to a reduction in course length of its existing four-year degrees. The reasons are set out in the accompanying document, but I would like to emphasise that we are now in a period of intense focus on European integration. We point out that our present procedures are more consistent with European practice and future validation requirements than is true of three-year courses. We also point out that a change to three-year courses would be slow to implement and would probably raise the percentage drop-outs to a point where very little practical advantage in throughput could be obtained.

We see advantages in the proposals relating to a 2 + 2 year degree which I believe are favoured by the Secretary of the Department of Education. We are willing to discuss this more extensively with him and with the HEA. The advantages lie in the necessity to structure our courses for purposes of external recognition and for student exchanges, especially within the ERASMUS programmes. We would also be interested in structures which would make possible a change of emphasis or direction for students after an initial two-year period of instruction.

We ask the HEA and the Department to take notice of the undertakings given by An Taoiseach when questions of university education were discussed with him in the last two years. It was a condition stated by him that the introduction of a new system of financing the universities would be accompanied by the freedom of universities to manage their internal affairs. You will know that this university has already prepared its first set of unit costings which will be available to the HEA after consultation with our colleagues in the other Colleges. We consider that the management of our own resources, which was part of the undertaking given to us by An Taoiseach, extends to our decision as to how our resources should be used in course structure and duration. You will no doubt have the various speeches of An Taoiseach on this subject available to you but they were taken very seriously by the universities.

Finally, I have on previous occasions expressed my concern and disquiet at failure within Government Departments, not necessarily the HEA or the Department of Education, to recognise the professionalism and experience that exists within the universities. It is not acceptable to us that our procedures, based on long evolution and experience, should be set aside in favour of the opinions of people who offer us no discussion and whose qualifications to decide on university coursework are unknown to us.

Yours sincerely, W. A. Watts Provost Enc.
