Brief Introduction
Ireland is an island nation located in Western Europe northwest of United Kingdom. It has a
strategic location on major air and sea routes between North America and northern Europe.
The government system is a republic, parliamentary democracy. The chief of state is the
President and the head of government is Taoiseach (Prime Minister). Ireland has a mixed
economic system in which the economy includes a variety of private freedom, combined with
centralized economic planning and government regulation. Ireland is a member of the
European Union (EU).
Ireland as a country is small in a European context both in terms of the physical size of the
country, its population that stands at 4.2 million and perhaps more importantly the density of
the population. For instance approximately 30% or 1.2 million of the population lives in the
Greater Dublin area. The overall population size is the highest recorded population rates
since 1861 and the increase was heavily influenced by inward migration during what is
referred to as the Celtic Tiger period. Population and its make-up are important aspects
when considering the concepts of a region. In Ireland the population of the regions other
than the Greater Dublin region is relatively small. Another feature, which is worth noting, is
that there is a great sense of place amongst Irish people with a strong attachment to their
own locality. This has its strengths when discussing some aspects of developing the learning
region but it can also be an obstacle. The Irish place a huge emphasis on the importance of
education. The most important point to be made however in relation to the Irish educational
system in the context of developing a learning region is that the system is hugely centralised
with the national government department of education and skills having a major input at all
levels.
The Irish educational system is well regarded as is noted in many reports both nationally and
internationally. The OECD (Review of National Policies For Education: Review of Higher
Education In Ireland – Examiners’ Report had this to say for instance; “The great strength of
the Irish tertiary education system is the way it has expanded student numbers while
preserving quality; the strategic importance of this to the national economy is well
recognised. However, this expansion has taken place almost entirely at the 18 to 21 year old
level and the beneficiaries have primarily been drawn from the managerial and professional
classes. The current forecasts of a further rise in the age participation rate will, unless action
is taken, further entrench middle class participation and do much less to expand participation
from lower socio-economic groups. Both social equity and economic arguments point to
renewed efforts to broaden participation in tertiary education. Partly this is a matter of long
term investment in nursery and primary education, partly in strengthening careers guidance
and counselling in schools, partly in greatly increasing the proportion of part-time students
and facilitating this by treating them on the same basis as full-time students in respect to
fees and maintenance support, and partly in re-energising the demand for lifelong learning.
We suggest ways in which the new TEA can incentivise action by HEIs but the fundamental
requirement is that Government and the tertiary education system recognises the nature of
the problem and commit themselves to reversing current trend" OECD 2004
Summary of material collected
Examples are given from experience and practice such as cities of Cork, Limerick and
Dublin. Such as the Programme for University Industry Interface (PUII) University of
Limerick, Ireland, the paper presented at the 27th EUCEN Conference ‘Developing the
Learning Region – Thoughts to Actions’, University of Limerick, 9th June 2004, the
document entitled ‘Communities of Practice and the Irish Economy’ by O’Dowd,
McQuade, and Murphy (2004). The Cork Learning Festival and the Learning Hub and the
Shannon Consortium (a collaborative alliance between UL, MIC, LIT - all in Limerick and IT
Tralee.
Ireland - learning region development summary
IRELAND AS A LEARNING REGION Brief Introduction Ireland as a country is small in a
European context both in terms of the ... aspects when considering the concepts of a region.
In Ireland the population of the regions other than the Greater Dublin region is ...
Limerick City of Learning/Ireland
... Limerick, Co. Cathair Luimnigh, Ireland NUTS: ... Limerick, Co. Cathair Luimnigh, Ireland
...
Collaborative Learning in Large Organisations: A Community of Practice Approach
... 80 KB This is a paper from Ireland This is a paper from Ireland exploring Collaborative
Learning in Large Organisations: A Community of ...
The Learning Region’s Role in Sustaining Competitive Advantage
... business models for high-technology manufacturing in Ireland, particularly in the
subsidiaries of foreign multinationals. It also ... development of the high-technology
information industry in Ireland in the 1980s and 1990s. Interviews were transcribed, open
coding ...
IRELAND AS A LEARNING REGION
... Title IRELAND AS A LEARNING REGION Publication Type Miscellaneous ...
North of Northern Ireland
Code: UKN04 Level: 3 ...
West and South of Northern Ireland
Code: UKN05 Level: 3 ...
East of Northern Ireland
Code: UKN03 Level: 3 ...
Northern Ireland
Code: UKN0 Level: 2 ...
NORTHERN IRELAND
Code: UKN Level: 1 ...
Presentations of the EUROlocal Conference
Tool type(s): Other (please describe) Other: Se ...
TELS - Towards a European Learning Society
... TELS was one of the first learning city projects to be funded by the Commission. It was
initially managed by the ... Southampton (England), Drammen (Norway). Limerick (Ireland),
Espoo (Finland) and Edinburgh (Scotland). In the same year 4 major ...
INDICATORS
... and tested in the 5 partner countries of the project - UK, Ireland, France, Italy and Norway.
Five types of organisations were targetted ... in Framework, Leonardo, Socrates and Social
Fund projects. CRLL worked collaboratively in this project with the Division of ...
The Amadora Lisbon Agenda project
... with significant immigrant populations, by introducing learning across boundaries. Around
that time, the European Commission ... Germany (Chemnitz region), the ‘area partnerships’ in
Ireland and the ’comité de bassin d’emploi’ in France. ...
Progress
Most recently the Hunt Report has given a good account of the educational system as a
whole in Ireland. Interestingly form the perspective of the learning region this report is critical
of the insular approach that individual institutions take. The report notes that some
developments have taken place to improve this situation but this philosophy competition
rather than collaboration does not foster the development of the basic concepts of the
learning region. Additionally the strong sense of place, which is very visible in Ireland, also
militates
against
its
development.
Regions are
not
generally
recognised
either
geographically or politically. In recent years there have been some attempts to develop
regional assemblies but as these have been based of attempts to coordinate the functions of
other entities such as local councils and development boards they are not well recognised.
Interesting enough the Mid-West Region has had a very strong regional Development
organisation called Shannon Development. This organisation can point to many successes
but again in recent years its role and function has been gradually eroded to the extent that in
a recent review of government agencies it was recommended that it be abolished. In
summary therefore the development of the notion of a learning region is difficult to visualise
in the absence of the basic understanding of a region. The emergence of the
aforementioned regional authorities is in essence lip service to the regions outside of the
greater Dublin area.
In educational terms the individual sectors have developed as separate entities and until
very recently there have been little or no evidence that there is an appetite for change in this
regard. Prior to the publication of the Hunt report some consortia were beginning to emerge.
They resulted from the methodology of assessment adopted by the panel established to
evaluate proposals for funding under the Strategic Innovation Fund. The primary consortia to
emerge were the Shannon Consortium, which consists of the university of Limerick, The
Limerick Institute of technology, Mary Immaculate College and the Institute of Technology
Tralee. The Dublin Alliance, which comprises the 4 universities within the greater Dublin
area and three of the Institute of Technology. A further less formal alliance exists Border,
Midlands and West Region comprising NUIG and a number of Institutes of technology. A
further two consortia emerged from this exercise the first comprising NUIG, UCC and a
number of the institutes of technology which specifically examined issues associated with
the recognition of prior learning and work based learning generally. The final one was
established to examine issues associated with teaching and learning and comprised UCC,
and the institutes of technology in Cork and Waterford. Apart from the Shannon Consortium
and the Dublin alliance it would be difficult to call the other consortia “regional” and therefore
will hardly contribute to the development of the learning region concept within Ireland.
At the time of writing other initiatives were emerging. The Hunt report referred to previously
finally closed the door on the aspirations of any of the institutes of technology been
designated as universities. Instead a number of the these institutes are forming “alliances”
and are looking for the designation “technical University” but again these appear not to be
based on region cohesion. This is a pity bearing in mind that the former title of these
institutes was Regional Technical Colleges. There is little doubt that a number of the
institutes have developed significantly over the years with a number of them now granting
awards from level six right through to ten on the Irish National Qualifications Framework. In
addition to this the University of Limerick and the National University of Ireland Galway have
established what they are referring to as a “Strategic Alliance”.
Link to E2020
The cities of Cork, Limerick and Dublin were very active in the emergence of the Learning
City movement. In Limerick for example the Learning Hub has successfully brought together
parents, the community, statutory agencies and education services to provide a stimulating
learning environment for young people. It aims to provide solution focused responses to the
high levels of disadvantage and early school leaving in the area. In Cork a successful
Learning Festival is held each year. Beyond this and other similar examples little has
emerged from these to further the wider concept of the Learning Region. Individual
programmes have in some cases attempted to develop what could be seen as the embryo of
a learning region by bringing the economic and educational players within a region together.
One such attempt was the Programme for University and Industry Interface. It certainly
made some progress but it did not have the broader societal agenda as part of its work. One
development, which had the potential to undertake significant work in this field, was the
establishment of development boards. Again however these boards became very territorial
yes they formed a national grouping. But they were again established based on local
authority structures instead of on a regional basis. There is little doubt that this political
expedient and has not served the citizens as well as it might have had.
Appreciation to Dermot Coughlan for his work on this report.