Cork and Waterford Institutes of Technology should be given the right to award their own qualifications in all existing sub-degree courses, an international review group has recommended. A future review should determine whether they can award their own degrees.
This will come as a disappointment to the two colleges, which had been hoping to obtain the right to award degrees. It will be welcomed by senior Department of Education officials, who are anxious to limit non-university third level colleges' ambitions for university status and to maintain a separate technological sector.
It is expected that a separate international review group will report soon that the Dublin Institute of Technology, which already has degree-awarding powers, should not become a university for the present.
This emphasis on the need for future development is also present in the reports on Cork and Waterford ITs' applications for degree and sub-degree-awarding powers. The review group says the academic councils of the two institutes are "growing in stature, and time will strengthen their role within the institutes, allowing the development of quality assurance and enhancement in their academic standing".
Commenting on Cork IT's self-evaluation report, the review group says: "A picture of a large institution with a record of substantial achievement emerges from the report, with the requirement for further development being identified in some key aspects of the Institute's operation, e.g. its management structures and budget-setting procedures."
The review group expresses concern at the appropriateness of a "flat" management structure in such a large institution, with the heads of 17 departments reporting directly to the director. It notes that CIT does not describe how its departmental budgets are allocated and accounted for.
It says Cork IT's departmental structure does not allow for "sufficient inter-disciplinary communication and the development of inter-departmental courses". However, it is impressed by the college's technology transfer co-operation with local industry, its response to skills shortages initiatives and its courses' recognition by professional bodies.
The review group says Waterford IT's self-evaluation report "paints a picture of an Institute undergoing a process of rapid change". It welcomes the report's "frank identification of strengths and weaknesses" in the institute's structures, which reinforces its belief that "devolution of powers to an Institute is an evolving process".
It notes that Waterford places course boards, composed of all lecturers on that course, "at the heart of quality assurance" and notes that the college is addressing weaknesses in their operation.
It recommends that procedures to develop new courses "be looked at again with a view to ensuring that there is enough expertise available to the Institute to guarantee the quality of courses at each stage of development".
The group says "it will be necessary for the Institute to incorporate a strong external dimension to quality assurance procedures in the context of delegation of authority to award qualifications." It "strongly supports WIT in its efforts to evaluate and improve the quality of teaching where necessary."