REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY’S STRATEGY PLAN, DCU
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT MCALEESE AT THE LAUNCH OF DUBLIN CITY UNIVERSITY’S STRATEGY PLAN, DCU TUESDAY, 22ND JUNE 2010
Dia dhíbh a chairde, cuireann sé áthas orm bheith anseo libh inniu agus tá mé thar a bheith buíoch daoibh as an chuireadh a thug sibh dom. It is a real pleasure to be back on the Dublin City University campus for the launch of the University’s new Strategy Plan (2010-2012). A special thank you to outgoing President Ferdinand von Prondzynski for his kind invitation to be here today and a thank you for the huge personal investment he has made in DCU during his tenure of office. I was delighted if a bit mollified when my former student became President ten years ago. I am doubly mollified to find him retiring from the job a decade on.
There have been many changing faces of Ireland since I first saw the young Ferdinand in my criminal law classes in Trinity College in the mid 1970s. Free second-level education for all had just become a reality and its full impact was still a long way off. University education was geared around a modest-sized cohort and had yet to feel the huge momentum generated by widened access to second level and the newly formed ambition and appetite for further and higher education. The Celtic Tiger years lay ahead with massive inward investment particularly from the United States, the growth of a native entrepreneurial culture and high levels of achievement in the high tech industries and export sector generally. We felt the surging confidence that comes from external validation and full employment and though the recent recession woke us up to harsh internal realities the truth is that 125 US companies started up here last year and twenty more already this year in spite of the global financial climate. Though living with levels of austerity and unemployment not seen for many years, our economy is beginning to rally and most important of all we can see with great clarity the importance to our future of our university sector and in particular its contribution to the formation of highly skilled graduates and postgraduates as well as nurturing a culture of innovation through research and development.
It has been said that we cannot always build the future for our youth but we can build our youth for the future and there can be little doubt but a commitment to original research and scholarship is essential if we are to remain competitive within the world’s smart economies. DCU’s Strategy Plan is designed to provide our young people with the opportunities to become the leaders, innovators, problem solvers and entrepreneurs that our society now requires as an innovative globalised export oriented economy.
The Rev Martin Luther King once said that “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy”. The same criteria can be applied to a community or indeed a society. As we begin to see some signs of recovery from the economic storm, the challenge now is to develop policies and strategies that will restore hope, confidence and positive momentum – so that quality and sustainable jobs are created for current and future generations; so that essential public services are protected and developed; so that an inclusive society equitably embraces vulnerable citizens and communities; so that our environment is not abused but used wisely so that it is conserved and sustained for future generations. The social cohesion, community common sense and solidarity which characterise Irish civic life allow us to be sure that this moment of crisis will not overwhelm us but rather will encourage us to radically alter the old institutional narratives of State, Church and Business which have been shown to be in urgent need of repair, reform and renewal.
It was said recently that “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste”. None of us wish to return to the dangerous hubris of recent years. But, equally, fatalism leads into a cul-de-sac. Now is the time and the chance to re-imagine Ireland and to plant the seeds we want to see harvested in the future. If the grasping Celtic Tiger proved to be an unsustainable indulgence, what kind of Ireland do we want to succeed it? The Proclamation soon to be one hundred years old would be hard to beat for a succinct and as yet unrealised collective ambition – to be a republic of equals where all the children, in other words where everyone, is cherished equally. From those simple words there emerges a radical ambition to furnish all our people with the best education, the best jobs, the best health care, the best quality of life we can between us fairly and reasonably create. In the race to generate equity in property rather than equity in society, we stopped for a moment listening to the voices of altruism and noble values calling us to think generationally and to act generously.
When DCU was awarded full university status in 1989 it was considered at the time to be 'unconventional' and mould breaking. Its freshness came from a long-term generational vision which was to radically alter Irish higher education. DCU was the first university in Ireland to introduce work placement as an integral part of its degree programmes. The degree programmes offered here were also the first to be interdisciplinary, with, for example, science students taking business courses, business students taking languages and language students taking computing. The benefits of multi-tasking across disciplines became apparent in the changing work environment where intellectual and skills flexibility became a demand not an option.
DCU has also made huge efforts to ensure access to education for those who don’t fit the traditional ‘school-leaver’ model or who have financial or other obstacles preventing them from pursuing their education dreams. DCU’s commitment to social inclusion, including Intergenerational learning opportunities, has ensured that lives and talents once wasted or consigned to underachievement, especially in the local community, have been opened up to their true potential and became the inspiration for others to transcend disadvantage through education. This is in fact DCU’s Access Service twentieth birthday and I wish the Service happy Birthday and ad multos annos.
The richly textured campus and community experience generated here at DCU and the national debate generated by the desire to kick start our momentum again has created an important context in which to plan wisely and intuitively for the future. Typically DCU has gone about the reflection and analysis and planning in a collaborative way so that the next steps are steady, sure and strategic, yet as radical and innovative as they need to be to ensure DCU’s graduates are best prepared to help build an Ireland that is inspirational to its people and to the world.
Inspirational is a word easily associated with President Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski. One of the most outstanding students I ever had the privilege to teach, Ferdinand’s unstinting commitment to this University, to Higher Education and to Ireland has been total. An exceptional leader, champion and advocate Ferdinand leaves with our gratitude, respect and praise ringing in his ears. On behalf of all of us, I thank you and wish you continued success and fulfillment in all that lies ahead.
To Ferdinand’s eminent successor Professor Brian MacCraith, you take our good wishes with you as you take over the helm at an important watershed in our nation’s history. Through its staff and students, DCU will write an important chapter in the narrative of Ireland in the coming times. The draft table of contents is what we launch today and as the old Irish seanfhocal says – tús maith is leath na hoibre – a good start is half the work – so is a good strategy. May the writing of the second half – the bringing of the strategy to life bring huge credit to DCU in the years ahead and may your success be also the story of Ireland. Go raibh míle maith agaibh go léir.