Speech by President McAleese at the opening of THE 7TH Biennial INQAAHE World CONFERENCE
Speech by President McAleese at the opening of THE 7TH Biennial INQAAHE World CONFERENCE, Dublin Castle
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am delighted to be able to welcome you to Ireland for the 7th World Conference of INQAAHE, the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education. We are delighted that Ireland has been chosen as the European venue for this prestigious conference, and I hope that you will have a fruitful and enjoyable few days with us here in Dublin.
It is a particular pleasure to welcome over two hundred delegates from over forty countries who have come here to work together and share best practice and expertise on issues affecting quality assurance systems in higher education. In another life, as a University lecturer I might have been sitting in the audience as a delegate. As President of Ireland this area is no less close to my heart and no less important for education, good quality education, has been the key to improved life chances for many of our people and it is a vital key to our future.
Increasingly throughout the world, education is recognised as having a central role in the promotion of economic competitiveness and social progress, in supporting community development and democracy, addressing inter-generation poverty and disadvantage, promoting the development of individuals, families, communities, and the wider society. Civic societies with strong education systems, designed to facilitate the widest possible release and upskilling of talent, are societies that have more than a passing chance at being humanly decent places to live. The relationship between access to third level education and true social inclusion is a much discussed problem area but the quality of higher education is equally a matter that concerns the wider society as much as the academic community. The downstream consequences of poor quality education have baleful repercussions way beyond the individual. The knowledge equity generated by high quality education has the capacity to transform the fortunes of a country, taking it, as it has Ireland, from endemic poverty to remarkable success in a couple of generations. Run your car on poor quality petrol and it stutters uncertainly giving no confidence that it will reach its destination. Run it on good quality petrol and its smooth running breeds confidence that any destination can be aspired to and reached successfully.
Education is one of the basic fuels that drives society. Our schools and colleges are the wells from which we draw that fuel. Its quality matters to us because our future matters to us. Many of us have a clear memory of an Ireland where children left school in their early teens and took the emigrant boat to lowgrade jobs. We are proud of the transformed fortunes of our people, of the sophisticated landscape of opportunity and achievement a new generation has created and we want it not simply to continue but to keep on widening its embrace so that none of our people remain on those margins where talent is overlooked and wasted, but all get a chance to live fulfilled lives right at the centre. The empowering of our talent base is one of the most crucial roles given to any group in our society. We give it to our educators and with it goes a sacred trust to keep on pursuing goals of excellence which will keep our society fighting fit in the cut and thrust of the national and international market place and at the same time cultivate the rounded individuals who sustain healthy, stable and prosperous civic societies.
We want our young people to have the hands of the craftsman but also the heart of the metaphysician. We want both economic prosperity and cultural vibrancy. We want a society that is deeply at peace but restless for complete social justice and a “true social order” to quote our Constitution. What we want for ourselves we also want for other peoples and nations.
That is why we are so grateful that you are here. Each of you has your own unique reservoir of insight, wisdom, intuition and experience in the field of education and in the pursuit of an embedded culture of high quality in education. You bring that reservoir with you to this conference and offer it as a gift to be shared with others engaged in the same field. Your network ensures that information and experience flow easily across borders and across disciplines, bringing a rich harvest of shared knowledge. That sharing process is our guarantee that we in Ireland and our colleagues around the world, will draw from the richest fuel supply possible.
Your agenda and your work is helping to stitch together the fabric of credible and sustainable educational excellence on which the future of many individuals and communities depends. Generations of yet unborn children rely on your commitment and your achievements. I am sure they will have much to thank you for. I congratulate the Higher Education and Training Awards Council for hosting this conference and wish the International Network of Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education every success. Enjoy this conference. May the energy of its debate renew your sense of vocation to this important work and may its camaraderie provide you with many opportunities for the kind of working friendships on which tomorrow’s networks of collaboration will be built. I have great pleasure now in declaring the conference officially open.