THE IDENTITY of the next Trinity provost should be known by lunchtime today after a vote among 680 academics in the college’s dining hall. The contest between five candidates has been described as “the most open in the college’s history”.
In recent days, attention has focused on the possibility that Prof Jane Ohlmeyer could become the first female provost in Trinity’s 400-year history – and the first woman to lead a university in the State. She is also trying to break a recent tradition where university leaders are drawn almost exclusively from the science and research area.
The other candidates are long-time favourite professor of engineering Patrick Prendergast; Prof Colm Kearney of the school of business, Prof Des Fitzgerald, vice-president of research at UCD, and Prof John Boland, director of the Crann Nanoscience Institute.
The €200,000 post is the most prestigious in Irish higher education. It comes with a residence at 1 Grafton Street, which dates to 1759. It also boasts its own art collection, including works by Jack B Yeats.
TCD is the only Irish university ranked among the top 50 in the world, but morale there has been damaged by a series of structural reforms over the past decade. Increasingly, academics complain about the “new managerialism” in the college.
A dominant theme in the campaign has also been the sense among TCD academics that the college is losing ground – especially to UCD in terms of prestige and reputation. In recent years, the gap between both colleges has narrowed significantly in the world rankings. UCD – ranked at 221 five years ago – is now inside the top 100.
Irrespective of the outcome, all candidates agree that TCD faces a major financial challenge as it seeks to provide services to increasing student numbers with less resources.
Prof Ohlmeyer has promised to to raise €1 billion from non-exchequer sources over the next 10 years while Prof Fitzgerald said yesterday that the university’s deficit could reach €130 million over the next five years.
