Tipo de Tratamiento Sustitutivo

The extent to which the role of higher education is to create employable graduates is critically looked at in this section. The reason the term ‘employability’ needs to be examined is because my overall question looks at practitioner perspectives on the role of higher education as a preparation for employment in public relations.

The old traditional model of university being referred to as an Ivory Tower has progressively changed. In 1851, Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote in his series of papers on the Idea of a

University that the power of a university education was to develop the individual. The same

year as this work was published, he opened the Catholic University in Dublin (now known as University College Dublin), as a template for this new kind of institution where students did not just learn but flourished (Humphreys, 2014). As Cardinal John Newman (1907) said:

A University is, according to the usual designation, an Alma Mater, knowing her children one by one, not a foundry, or a mint, or a treadmill. (Newman, 1907, p 145).

Newman’s concept can still remind us that the role of higher education is not just to certify students with qualifications, but that it is also about shaping the individual. More recently, according to a consultation report (Cassells 2015) completed for the department of Education and Skills in Ireland, the purpose and value of higher education is:

The purpose and value of higher education is its ability to add to the understanding of, and hence the flourishing of, an integrated social, institutional, cultural and economic life. It contributes both to individual fulfilment and the collective good. (Cassells 2015, p iii).

Additionally, research completed by the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) in 2015 into tertiary education, reported that over 80% of tertiary educated adults are employed, compared with over 70% with upper secondary or post-

secondary education (OECD 2015). This report also highlighted that tertiary educated adults earn about 60% on average more than adults with upper secondary as their highest level of education attainment. (OECD 2015). Ireland known legendarily as the “land of saints and scholars” seems to continue to be recognised globally as is perhaps the role that higher

64 education and research has played in bringing about such successes as 9 out of the top 10 global software companies and 9 out of the top 10 pharmaceuticals companies are located in Ireland.

In the most recent higher education report in relation to HE and employability in Ireland, the HEA (2016) shows that only 5% of Honours Bachelor Degree graduates are ‘seeking

employment’. The report which looked at where graduates from 2014 progressed to, showed that almost six in ten Honours Bachelor Degree graduates found employment in 2014 (compared to 51% in 2013), the majority of whom are staying in Ireland (48%) for work. Likewise, employment grew for Higher and Postgraduate Diploma graduates – from 73% in 2013 to 76% in 2014. As a consequence, the proportion of such graduates going overseas has reduced (from 10% in 2013 to 8% in 2014). Masters and Doctorate graduates also experience relatively high levels of employment, at 78% – an improvement of five percentage points on the previous year. Therefore, there is clear evidence of a direct link between higher

education and employability. However, the HEA (2016) additionally caution that given the decline in resources per student, ‘we have to be alert to the risk that the quality of graduates

too could decline, and so their employability’ (HEA, 2016, p3).

There is however growing concern amongst a number of academics in Higher Education in relation to the continuing growth in the number of students and the quality of higher

education. Giroux (2010) and Ingleby (2015) have noted the shift in the HE landscape under neoliberal forces increasingly aligning the goals of business, government and education. Additionally, Boden and Nedava (2010) reason that higher education institutions are now generally managerialist, focusing on areas such as funding streams, performance management regimes, quality audits and research assessment exercises. One of their key points is

significant in asserting this concern:

Educating students is now, to a significant extent, a mass, global corporatized business, exhibiting almost all of the characteristics associated with making cars or providing financial services. (Boden & Nedava, 2009, p 40).

A recent QQI (Quality Qualifications Ireland) report highlighted the effect of diminishing resources on a range of areas within HE in Ireland. These included the student’s learning

65 experience, work overload, teaching and research, equipment and library facilities. However, as an insider who has experienced all these issues at the coalface, it seemed rather galling to read:

What is commendable and important to draw from many of the reports sampled is the continued emphasis by institutions on enhancing the student learning experience and the continued commitment of staff to rationalise, innovate and minimise the impact of reduced resources on students. (QQI, 2016).

But I would concur with Giroux (2010) who exhorted:

Overworked and politically underrepresented, an increasing number of higher education faculty are reduced to part time positions, constituting the new subaltern class of academic labour (Giroux 2010, p 191).

Therefore, examination of the role of HE needs to be done so critically. Boden and Nedava (2010) argued that the shift towards employability being a performative function of

universities adjusts the power balances in favour of employee markets. It is argued however that this employability discourse may be adversely affecting teaching and learning to the detriment of students, institutions, employers, social justice and civil society (Boden and Nedava, 2010, p 37).

Be that as it may, Hill, Walkington and France (2016) suggest that it needs to be considered how ‘generic graduate capabilities’ (p 155) enhance the disciplinary expertise of

undergraduate students. It will therefore be interesting in this research to ascertain the views of professional practitioners on the role of higher education in preparing people for entry into the profession.

Having provided some insights into the role of higher education in Ireland, the next section deals specifically with the literature that examines the role of public relations education within higher education.

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