THE EDUCATION PROFILE: PROF JIM BROWNE, PRESIDENT NUI GALWAY: He's a grafter, more concerned with getting the finer details right than enhancing his public profile. As president of NUI Galway, Prof Jim Browne has managed to oversee substantial changes without the kerfuffle witnessed in other institutions.
PROFESSOR JIM BROWNE, president of NUI Galway is the quiet man of Irish university politics. Often overshadowed in the media by his more outgoing counterparts in other universities, he is nonetheless widely respected for his dedication and knowledge of the sector and its inner workings.
“Browne has forgotten more than most of us will ever know,” commented one source. “I must admit that I occasionally glaze over, but he has an extraordinarily detailed knowledge which can be very useful to have to hand.”
Few speak of Browne without mentioning how different he is to his predecessor, Dr Iognáid (Iggy) Ó Muircheartaigh. Opinions vary about whether this is a good thing. “If you walked into a crowded room, you would never miss Iggy, but you might have trouble remembering Jim,” commented one observer.
“They’re just very different characters,” argued another. “As a university president I believe that Jim has more edge to him.”
Had everything gone according to plan, Browne would currently be planning his retirement rather than entering his second year in the job. As Dean of Engineering, he was the preferred candidate of an assessment board for the position of president when the post came up nine years ago. However, problems emerged when the decision of the assessment board was put to the college governing authority. “The traditionalists pushed for Ó Muircheartaigh who eventually got the job,” said an observer. Browne lost out.
There is much admiration for the way Browne handled himself in the aftermath of all that.
“He could very easily have taken his marbles and gone home in a sulk, but he didn’t,” said one observer. Despite receiving tempting offers from other universities Browne opted to stay in Galway, and stepped into the job of registrar and deputy president.
Many observers comment with wonder that he never displayed any rancour about the affair. Those closer to him saw more. “I certainly wouldn’t underestimate the deep hurt he felt over that,” warned one source. “I’m sure he made his feelings very well known to the people involved, but he never said anything publicly.”
A period of uneasy truce ensued. Despite what had gone before, the Ó Muircheartaigh and Browne partnership worked well. “Iggy was the frontman. He was happy to delegate a lot of work of running the college to Jim,” said a colleague.
Opinions vary as to whether Browne negotiated the level of control he had as registrar or whether his phenomenal workrate simply led to him filling a vacuum.
There was a massive amount of modernisation and restructuring to be done and Browne is credited with managing the changes without any of the drama that ensued in other colleges over similar revisions. “NUIG has undergone just as much change as other institutions. There just weren’t any headline-grabbing rows about it,” explained another insider.
When Ó Muircheartaigh retired in March of last year, there was no question over his successor. “This time Browne was the only man for the job,” said a peer.
A native of Athlone, Co Westmeath, Browne’s father worked for CIE as a train driver. Money was never easy to come by and this background has informed Browne’s outlook ever since. “He has a very strong social conscience,” commented a colleague. “He certainly has a harder left-of-centre view of the world than one might expect of somebody in his position.”
He was a gifted student and won scholarships to secondary school and university, graduating from NUIG with a degree and later a Master’s degree in engineering. After a number of years working in industry, he gained his PhD from the University of Manchester. It was there he discovered one of his great passions in life.
“Manchester City – when he’s discussing football he gets very excited,” said one peer. “I’ve known him to sit in meetings checking results online.” Unfortunately for City, Browne has apparently been unable to pass his devotion on to even one of his four sons, which is a source of great amusement among colleagues.
Most see him as a workaholic, having published over 200 academic papers and 15 books that have also been translated into French and Chinese. He is well respected in international research circles and he has extensive contacts across the globe.
In many ways, Browne is an unusual character to have reached the pinnacle of an academic career. “Jim never played politics,” said one source. “It’s not in his nature.”
A reserved, even shy individual, the role of university figurehead that is part and parcel of being a university president does not sit easily with him.
“He can have a bit of a blind spot when it comes to dealing with people,” commented one colleague. “He has no time for waffle and he can be quite curt. You’d need to know him because it’s not meant to be unpleasant, he just doesn’t see the point of bluster.”
Some see this as a significant weakness. “I think that a major part of being a university president is being a figurehead for that institution,” commented another observer. “Jim is more interested in structures and issues – obsessed with detail. He’s sort of a registrar president and doesn’t really represent NUIG as much as he could.”
While it seems he will never be altogether comfortable in the spotlight, others argue that his public performances are becoming more confident as he enters the second year of his term.
A hugely strategic thinker, Browne has a definite vision for the future of NUIG. He believes that the university should maximise the benefits of its location and the industries in its hinterland, specialising in specific research areas such as environmental science and biomedical engineering to name just two. He also believes in collaboration between Irish universities and other institutions.
“I’d say he was agitated about the UCD/TCD research merger,” an observer speculated. “He sees any effort by the Dublin universities to strike out on their own like that as missing the broader picture. Irish universities should be sticking together on this.”
Now as we all face difficult times, Browne is trusted as a steady pair of hands. “It’s good that he’s seeing Galway through this time,” said a colleague. “Jim wins the trust and confidence of people not through charm, but through the excellence of his work. Everything he does fits into the overall plan.”
GALWAY RAG WEEK: the reaction
* People are bowing to complaints far too much nowadays. Look I will admit there is some unacceptable stuff that goes on rag week but overall people are just drunk and having fun. Boards.ie
* Well done NUIG. The drunken yahoos have left the town in bits. Rubbish and vomit on every street, windows cracked and broken, bottles and cans everywhere, walking home thru town after work last night was an experience I don’t want to have again. What the hell is wrong with the Irish? Why can’t we drink responsibly? Angrypotato.net
* I reckon this is a PR stunt from NUIG. Do you honestly think that this time next year this will be remembered in the media. It is either the new President Browne trying to be all tough or trying to make parents think that Galway is not all about drinking come CAO applications. Anycraic.com
* It’s hardly gonna stop people! Has Galway gone so much worse over the last few years? I remember going out during rag week four or five years ago, craic was 90, and everyone was in good humour and drunk in a good way – I never saw any violence. Boards.ie
* Nowadays the amount of students you see absolutely trashed early in the day is unreal. Some of them must literally be pouring Buckfast on their cornflakes in the morning.
Anycraic.com
RAGTIME GALWAY: Browne gets tough
This year, the NUIG Rag Week led to 40 students being arrested, while 31 attended the AE department of University College Hospital Galway.
Dr Jim Browne made the decision to withdraw college support from the week.
He was vociferous in his opinions of what had happened. He branded one student who took his clothes off in Eyre Square in front of children as a “sex offender” who effectively had been given licence because it was Rag Week to indulge in lewd behaviour.
Browne himself was in the city centre on the Monday of Rag week and witnessed a torrent of racial abuse being hurled at one man by drunken students. He said that Rag Week had become a “cover for drunkenness and grossly horrific behaviour” and that the “price was not being paid by students”. He expressed the hope that the prosecutions go ahead and that while there will not be a future NUIG Rag Week that the university would be willing to be associated with a “charity week or fortnight”.
Later he stated that what had happened had “damaged the reputation of students and the university in eyes of its neighbours, taxpayers and parents” and that given the economic situation “peoples’ noses had been rubbed in the muck”.
Extract from an article by Deirdre Judge in NUIGs campus newspaper SIN
