Dear Minister: A letter to the new Minister for Education

A meeting with American High School counsellors this week and with a visiting Vice President for racial diversity sparked conversation and so reflection on what the Arts Humanities and social sciences offer the world at this moment in time, and what in particular the Irish context offers of value to that realm. The American counsellors were concerned about the fact that fewer students in the US are now choosing to study the humanities in College, opting instead for business and professional courses. As this is the topic of  Martha Nussbaum's upcoming lecture to be hosted by the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and social sciences which I chair this coming Friday, I was curious to pursue this a little and establish what then the counsellors thought might attract their students to Ireland. I was informed that just as they will opt go to Milan to study fashion, these American students who have a global view of opportunity might come to Ireland to study say, literature. In addition as the VP for diversity informed me, American universities are now very conscious that global citizenship is very much part of their mission in education, and so American schools and educational institutions are -lately-coming to that view of the importance of internationalisation.
Well here's a thought-we have long been a nation that reached outwards and understood in the educational context the importance of so doing. Our exchange programmes-early Erasmus initiatives in Europe, and US links- have been forged and joint degrees and programmes now charaterise offerings in all our higher education institutions. As we are once again in the grip of emigration, but this time it is our graduates who are leaving-direct from the University campuses in many cases, thus taking their skills and our intellectual capital investment if you like with them, why do we not think of a way in which we can make that journey a rewarding one for them and for us? They are currently being warmly welcomed by states such as Canada, and although some fledgling efforts are made to engage graduates in training on some programmes while abroad, there is not enough, and nothing like the support that exists under Socrates and preceeded it under Erasmus to support undergraduate programmes. It was the latter in part which helped forge the strong links now exisiting in Ireland with EU instutions which are the envy of our American visitors, and which strengthen collaborative bids for international research funding opportunities thereby enhancing our research and development capacity. Can we not now find some mechanism to support initiatives which might harnass the capacity of our young bright graduates for their and our sake, by ensuring that their travelling abroad is enriching for them and for us, rather than leaving them to the vagaries of chance and opportunity? Instead of settling for snowboarding in Canada or waitering in Australia (though not to dismiss the value of either), why not ensure that they can also choose to be part of a programme of work opportunity and learning (new skills and acquiring foreign languages perhaps) -or of further training and work in their areas which enriches their CV; provides a safer passage and transition which will ease their families anxiety; and provides a possible route back here to the benefit of employers nationally and so our society and economy? Ensuring that this is a nationally sponsored government initiative -jointly perhaps with higher educational institutions- might deliver on a number of things:

• keep the talent and so profit from the expenditure already invested in the young educated of the country within the Higher Education Institutions at a time when restricted recruitment constrains our campuses, thereby ensuring the lifeblood of our academic staff is not depleted and the undergraduate curriculum fed with the direct and cutting edge of research
• ensure that some of those who do go abroad upskill and do so in a strategic manner which will ultimately assist the economy and society here on their return-by planning for that departure and ensuring some will return with certain skills acquired rather than leaving this to happenstance and luck
• walk the walk as well as talking the talk of this country as being a place that fosters youth and education that values ideas and creativity and does not put all of its money in the stratjacket of applied learning and vocational education, thereby submerging the imaginations of its young and not so young.-For as so often has been the case in the past -the really great idea that will help us emerge from this mess-the big idea -will be found in the least expected or anticipated place. But it will be fostered by what has always fostered great research and ideas-breadth of opportunity, and space, as well as the ability and opportunity to piece together things that might previously have been kept apart. That freedom is what scholars share worldwide as a value-it is what is common to both science and art-it is what should guide our education policy and opportunity now. It is what mandates that we keep some of our youngest and brightest connected to home.

So how about it Minister Quinn?