DIT academics protest over their role in process for technical university in Dublin

The eighteen heads of schools at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) have written a letter to the Chairman of the college’s governing body

Credit: William Murphy, Flickr

The eighteen heads of schools at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) have written a letter to the Chairman of the college’s governing body, Professor Tom Collins, to express their discontent regarding their role in the creation to a new technical university.

DIT and the institutes of technology at Tallaght (ITT) and Blanchardstown (BIT), under Government plans, would undergo an amalgamation to create a new university with the headquarters being at Grangegorman Campus in Dublin’s northside under the working title ‘TU4Dublin’.

The academics have claimed that they were “excluded” as the heads of schools in Tallaght and Blanchardstown were made “ex-officio members of the senior team discussing the future of the technological university”.

The group were told the reason for this supposed exclusion was due to the large number of academics in DIT in comparison with the other institutes. However, the academics have claimed they have been told that “the DIT head of school cadre are merely operational managers”.

The academics believe their roles are “undermined”, which they call a “travesty”. They have also expressed their doubts of the “ability of the institution to function as a university” in light of their believed inferior status.

DIT President Bill Norton has said that the discussion of the amalgamation is to begin again as the enabling legislation was due to the Oireachtas following a two-year hiatus. He has said that there is to be further discussion “to find the best way to involve all colleagues”.

Norton had also said “While there will be different views about the roadmap, there is a shared commitment to achieve the best outcome.”

A spokeswoman for the Department of Education has commented that the concerns raised are to be solved by “individual institutions” and the department  has confidence that the structures in place “to support a positive dialogue”.