The TU Way: An Bhfuil Tú Ag Teacht?

• Main Author: Larry McNutt
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Technological University Dublin 2020-01-01
• Series: Irish Journal of Academic Practice
• Subjects: higher education; Ireland; Technological University
• Online Access: https://arrow.tudublin.ie/ijap/vol8/iss1/11/

I am currently moving office, which is a dangerous endeavour at any stage particularly when you are a hoarder like me – and contributing to this dilemma is that I am currently saturated in data all beautifully bound in glossy reports describing everything from student engagement, access data, graduate outcomes, completion rates, gender equality to staff profiles. As I fill another box with these hefty tomes, I am reminded of Jonathon Swift’s assertion that “We have enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” In the context of Higher Education, we have enough evidence to make us realise that change is needed, but we never seem to have enough to make the change. Or perhaps we have reached a tipping point? – and that July 17th 2018 will go down in the history of Irish education as the date of a seismic shift! Well maybe not quite seismic, the first anniversary announcing the approval to create Ireland’s first Technological University passed off quietly.