Fewer universities with one big brand leader known as the University of Ireland is in the wider national interest
“In the course of discussions on the University College Dublin-Trinity research alliance two years ago, the Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his advisers had a Very Big Idea …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 25 February]
25 February 2011 at 8:19 pm
Normally when you merge things together you might expect the end result to be the average. So the average of the TCD and UCD staff student ratios, the average of the two institutions’ citation rates. This would put the merged institution somewhere above UCD and somewhere below TCD in any ranking. Something more fundememntal than merging is needed to ‘glide onto any list of the best universities’. I can’t think of any measure that can make the merger fantasy of a top 20 university a reality – other than a great deal more funding.