Irish universities will have to adapt to meet changing economic, social and demographic conditions. In the years to come, they will have to learn to cope with fewer young people, older, more ethnically diverse student bodies and greater competition for research funding.

For more than three decades, there have been more young Irish people wishing to attend university than there have been university places. Although the provision of places has increased dramatically since the early 1970s, the universities have been playing catch-up for most of this period, with places constantly lagging demand.

This situation is about to change dramatically. The rapid fall in births since 1980 is about to impact on the universities. Already the numbers sitting the Leaving Certificate has fallen from its 1998 peak. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute, the number of people aged between 15 and 24 years will fall from 660,000 in 2001 to 530,000 in 2016.

Universities will face much greater competition in attracting this reduced pool of potential students. With the Irish labour market set to remain tight for the foreseeable future, many people who would previously have attended university will be tempted to take one of the many relatively well-paid jobs on offer.

The emergence of privately owned, commercially-operated colleges means that the traditional universities are facing significant competition.

At the same time, they must cope with the challenges thrown up by new technologies, such as the Internet and in telecommunications. Competition for research funding is also turning white-hot.

However, the universities must face the future in a positive frame of mind. While changing circumstances present the universities with many challenges, they also bring potential opportunities. Freed from the treadmill of having to accommodate an ever-growing number of young people, the universities can now address historic inequities in gender balance. They can also take greater steps to ensure that students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and those with other disadvantages secure greater access to university education.

The age profile of the student body will also change significantly. Traditionally, students have completed their courses in their early 20s and have had no further dealings with their university. That will almost certainly change.

As the universities adopt a more proactive approach to attracting previously disadvantaged groups, it is likely that many of these new students will be older people. In addition, the rapid pace of technological development will increase the importance of lifetime learning. Previous graduates will return at regular intervals throughout their careers for refresher courses to update their knowledge.

The universities will also begin to reflect the Republic's increasing ethnic diversity in the composition of their student bodies, both through attracting growing numbers of students from abroad and reaching out to ethnic groups already living in this State.

Many of these students will have different requirements from those who have traditionally attended university. The universities will have to constantly monitor the academic progress of their students to maximise completion rates. They will have to constantly refine their teaching methods and assess their effectiveness.

The University of Limerick has established a new senior management position, a dean of teaching and learning, who will assume leadership in this area.

Just as the universities will have to recruit new types of student so they will also have to adopt new approaches when competing for research funding. The previous rigid barriers between different disciplines will have to give way to a multi-disciplinary approach. Future research will increasingly involve co-operation and crossfertilisation across academic boundaries for the benefit of all.

We in the universities are proud of the major contribution we have made to Irish economic development over the past two generations. What is truly remarkable is that this contribution has been achieved on funding levels that would be regarded as a shoestring by international standards.

If we are to continue to make a major contribution we will have to embrace the changes occurring in the environment in which we operate and turn them to our advantage. Tomorrow's university will have to embrace all strands of learning, combining traditional classroom-based learning with distance learning over the Internet.

It will have to be accessible to all sections of the community and successfully attract increasing numbers of overseas students. Standing still is not an option. The dynamic pace of change will not allow that.

Prof Roger G.H. Downer is president of the University of Limerick and chairman of the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities.