The Christmas edition of our newsletter also signals the end of my first year at IUA, and it has certainly been an exciting one. As I reflect on the year, what strikes me most is the scale and complexity of today's modern university. Coming to terms with that complexity has proved to be a fascinating learning experience and one which I know will continue.
It also sets a context for the challenges facing us. Many of those challenges were well spelled out in the recent Prospectus survey of attitudes to Higher education: http://prospectus.ie/survey. which canvassed views of the HE community, policy makers and enterprise. A key finding of the survey is the view that there is a pressing need for an overall long term strategy for HE. This reflects a priority which we identified early in 2008 and which we progressed significantly during the course of the year in discussions with the Department of Education and Science, and Minister Hanafin. I am confident that we will see an announcement in this area from the Department in the near future. The development of a national strategy offers a tremendous opportunity for us to build a national consensus on the future of Higher Education and to ensure that policy supports our ambitions for the University sector.
Speaking of strategic change, the roll out of the Strategy for Science, Technology and Innovation began in earnest with Cycle IV of PRTLI and major new calls from SFI under the Stokes Professorships and Strategic Research Clusters/CSETs. These calls dominated the first half of the year and were followed in quick succession by the call for Cycle II of the Strategic Innovation Fund. I want to record my thanks to all of our University colleagues who participated in the formulation of the IUA sectoral bid under SIF. It was a challenging task, not least because the same people were driving their own institutional/collaborative bids. I am confident that these efforts will be reflected on a positive result for the sector when the results of the call are published (hopefully any day now).
SIF has also proved to be a significant driver of IUA activity as 2007 was also the year when our SIF cycle one projects began to reach critical mass. We were delighted to welcome Westley Forsythe as Fourth Level Coordinator and Aine Galvin, who is taking time out from UCD to lead our Access project. We also saw the departure of Siobhan Harkin to the capital side of HEA. We wish Siobhan the best at HEA and look forward to working with her in her new role.
While funding from competitive streams continues to flow, the overall health of the sector's finances is something which we focused strongly on during the year. With the downturn in economic growth and the public finances now very much evident, it is clear that we will continue to have to fight hard, both to maintain an adequate financing base, and to maximise added value from the resources available to us. The SIF sectoral projects supported by IUA in the areas of Full Economic Costing, Key Performance Indicators and the Leadership Academy will be critical in this regard as they progress from conception to implementation in 2008.
This is only a very small flavour of issues and events which came onto the radar in 2007. While these are all vital, the most gratifying experience for me in 2007 was getting to know the university community, through my involvement with the IUA Council and its working groups but also through more informal contacts and day to day interactions. I want also to thank all of my colleagues at IUA who along with the University community, made me feel so welcome and supported throughout the year. Merry Christmas and roll on 2008!