Category: Knowledge economy

Academic talent

Peter Sutherland may have been quoted out of context, or inaccurately, in today’s Irish Times, where it is reported that

Yesterday, Mr Sutherland was also critical of Government moves to reduce the pay of university presidents and other senior academics. Mr O’Keeffe has written to university presidents seeking a voluntary pay cut, while the Higher Education Authority has reviewed procedures which allow universities make special payments to its top academics.

Mr Sutherland called for a new flexible approach, “necessary to retain talented but highly mobile staff”.

But presumably the academics here can all agree that in the entire history of higher education, there has never been a recorded case of a talented student saying “I must get my PhD at Harvard, they have a really exciting President”, or “Oxford is the place for me, their Head of Human Resources rocks”, or “what about that VP for Research at Stanford, there’s no other option as far as I’m concerned.”

Academics — even, or perhaps especially, the opinionated ones — make universities what they are. The best students go to places like Harvard because of faculty rosters like this. VPs, Presidents and all the rest are not ‘senior academics’. They are university bureaucrats, or administrators if you prefer. In the Irish context they sometimes come up through the ranks, while sometimes they are hired in from places like the HEA.  I doubt that they are particularly mobile internationally. Paying them enormous salaries strikes me as a waste of money.

If Ireland wants to become a ‘smart economy’ it would be helpful if basic distinctions like this were kept in mind.

Low Quality of Irish Universities Confirmed

I’ve been patiently waiting for a response to, or even a report in Ireland of, the  publication of the 2009 Shanghai  Jiao Tong Academic Ranking of World Universities.  See http://www.arwu.org/indexs.jsp.  Could this possibly be a case of socioanalytic denial? 

This is by far the most widely used ranking in the world for three reasons.  It is almost impossible to ‘game’. It is used as an information tool by internationally mobile students.   It is designed to honestly assess the evolution of the relative position of Chinese Universities: we know it’s honest because they don’t score well.  

There have been enthusiastic references in the Irish media and in this blog to other university rankings.  This is because some Irish universities appear to be important in these.  But you should be suspicious: they also rank many British universities well above obviously superior US institutions.  The apparent success of some Irish Universities is a by-product of this ludicrous outcome.

Go on:  check it out.  Has the Portarlington Institute for Science and Society got the recognition it deserves?

Retaining Talent

Yesterday’s QNHS (Q3 2009) release provides a timely update on trends in the immigrant workforce.   In the period from the third quarter of 2008 the number of non-Irish nationals in employment fell by 61,600.   This is equals half the fall in the employment of Irish nationals (123,200), even though non-nationals represented only 13.6 percent of the workforce in Q3 2008.

It is also evident that many immigrants are returning home, with the total population of non-nationals (15 and over) falling by 41,000 over the year.   This might be welcomed in the short run if it limits the rise in unemployment.   But returnees also ease the downward pressure on wages.  Over the medium term, it is not a bad rule of thumb to view a country’s equilibrium unemployment rate as independent of the size of its labour force. 

Looking to the longer term, the return to net emigration is a worrying development.   As is often observed, Ireland’s high degree of factor mobility makes the economy operate more like a regional than a typical national economy.   An expanding skilled workforce gives the economy the scale, diversity and connections to support innovation-intensive growth.   Indeed, the empirical regional/city growth literature points to initial human capital as a strong predictor of subsequent growth (see here).   A truly smart “smart economy strategy” will recognise the value of getting–and keeping—talented people here. 

European Research Area Conference

A recent international conference held in Brussels discussed strengthening research and research policies in Europe. The Conference Programme  addressed issues such as the long term perspectives for research and researchers; developing world-class research infrastructures in Europe; improving funding conditions for European research institutions; research and innovation during the current crisis; priorities for EU research policies post 2010; S&T specialisation; indicators to monitor progress towards the European Research Area and a knowledge-based economy. The papers and presentations can be found here. The conclusions of the conference sessions can be found here.

Effective Collaboration in Multidisciplinary Research

One of the points made often in relation to improving science, technology and innovation policy is the need for more effective multidisciplinary research. The ESRI is organising a Training Workshop focused on understanding multidisciplinary research collaboration and learning how to make it more effective. The Workshop will take place on 3 November 2009, 9:00-13:00. More details can be found here. Places are limited to 30 participants including researchers and policy analysts. Registration before 25 October 2009 here.