Leadership crisis at two universities sparked by financial woes

The president of Technological University Dublin (TU Dublin) in Ireland has unexpectedly resigned while the head of the University of Limerick is under strong pressure to also step down. In both cases the universities ran into financial difficulties over separate matters, prompting the state’s regulator, the Higher Education Authority (HEA), to intervene.

The authority was unhappy with financial management and control in the two institutions. The University of Limerick paid more than €11 million (around US$11.9 million) for 20 houses for students, twice the going rate in the area.

Meanwhile TU Dublin is emerging from a prolonged period of financial and other turbulence following a merger of three technology institutes into the country’s first technological university in 2019.

The resulting fall-out has damaged the sector, which is campaigning for additional funds. It says greater investment is needed to allow Irish universities to compete with their counterparts overseas and to continue to help develop the Irish economy, which is the fastest growing in the European Union.

In Limerick well-known economics professor Stephen Kinsella has had to reassure international investors in a ground-breaking immersive software course that their money is safe. He was quoted in the Business Post as being “incredibly angry” over being forced into this situation.

The issue will be top of the agenda for the country’s next minister for further and higher education who will succeed Simon Harris when the 37-year-old college dropout becomes the country’s new Taoiseach (prime minister) next week.

Hard times for Limerick

The developments at the University of Limerick are attracting significant attention as Professor Kerstin Mey was the first female to be appointed a university president in Ireland; today just over half of the 13 presidents are female.

The East German born academic has gone on sick leave and has told the Public Accounts Committee of the Oireachtas (Houses of Parliament) that she will be unable to attend a meeting next month. Her previous appearance before the committee last May was widely criticised when she declined to give full details of earlier €3 million overspending on a city centre site.

Committee Chair Brian Stanley, a Sinn Féin member of the Dail (lower house of Parliament), said Mey sent a “one-line” note saying she was incapacitated. “No further explanation or reasoning was offered,” Stanley said, adding that it was unacceptable to not attend without a plausible reason.

Ten of the 13 members of the university’s executive committee as well as 73 professors have asked Mey to stand down while the university’s sole trade union Unite has also expressed no confidence in her.

A cultural audit carried out by the union reported overwhelmingly negative feelings towards the institution’s executive as well as despair and sadness over the direction the university is taking. It shows that staff are increasingly disillusioned with the university’s leadership.

A university spokesperson said its executive would be engaging directly with the union on the survey. “The university has conducted extensive cross campus consultations in recent years and has established a culture and engagement working group which is tasked with developing new and existing processes and structures to help enable a positive organisational culture to thrive within UL,” the spokesperson added.

Chancellor Brigid Laffan took the unusual step of addressing staff and students on the campus on Thursday. She said she was “very disappointed” to learn of the housing overspend, which emerged only at her second governing authority meeting after she took office last November.

Limerick paid more than €11 million for 20 homes at Rhebogue, three kilometres from the campus. Mey has since acknowledged that the university “paid significantly above market price” but the reasons for doing so remain unclear.

It has since emerged that Limerick city planners had not authorised the houses as suitable for student accommodation. The governing authority also met last Thursday to discuss an initial damning report on the overspend that had been prepared by a former senior civil servant.

The HEA wants another review of the botched housing deal as well as of the University of Limerick’s “general culture and governance”. It has issued a formal statutory request for the review, which it can legally do if it believes that there are “significant concerns” about an institution’s governance or performance. It has scheduled a three day visit to the campus for talks with senior university managers.

A tough line with TU Dublin

The authority has also taken a tough line with Technological University Dublin, whose president Professor David FitzPatrick is stepping down to become provost and chief executive of the University of Nottingham Malaysia, a private operation near Kuala Lumpur, from 1 June.

In an email to staff, FitzPatrick said he had made the decision to leave last year. He acknowledged the financial and governance issues at the university but said that “having put the key elements of a platform for growth in place, I also recognise that this is an appropriate time for new energy to take the reins”.

In recent weeks, however, more than 20 department heads signed a letter to FitzPatrick raising concerns about financial management while teaching staff passed a number of motions of no confidence in him.

Problems had arisen over the hiring of consultants to advise on the merger of the separate institutes and reorganisation. Concerns were raised when an overspend on the contract was not authorised by the university’s governing body and a review of the tendering process was subsequently recommended.

An unexpected drop in student numbers separately led to a deficit of €8.6 million.

The authority expressed serious concerns at “the apparent lack of urgency, responsiveness and conduct by the governing body to address this matter in a timely and constructive manner”. HEA chief executive officer Dr Alan Wall told the chair of the governing body, Dr Charles Larkin, that strong leadership was “critical to the delivery of TU Dublin’s financial wellbeing, operational resilience, performance and reputation”.

Wall added: “There is a requirement for strategic, adaptive and timely responses to these matters, which are of serious concern to me.” Larkin subsequently wrote to staff saying the governing body would become more involved in the day-to-day management of the university.

* Four other technological universities have been created since 2019 from mergers of institutes of technology. Last year the government had to approve a one-off payment of €5 million in emergency funding to keep the Tralee campus of the Munster Technological University afloat. It had been experiencing significant cash flow problems and the only alternative to emergency funding was severe cutbacks.