Marian O’Sullivan and Aaron Porter explore the importance of strengthening governance across Irish higher education and introduce the next Advance HE Irish HE Governance Forum, a dedicated space for leaders and governance professionals to share insights and support continuous improvement across the system.

Good governance is critical to the effective operation of Irish higher education institutions (HEI). It requires that a framework of structures, policies and processes are in place to enable the HEI to achieve the desired outcomes. 

The Higher Education Authority (HEA) Act 2022 provides that one of the functions of the HEA is to support the effective governance of designated institutions of higher education by overseeing appropriate Governance Oversight Frameworks. These help in underpinning public confidence in the higher education system and accountability and compliance. The HEA relies on assurances from HEIs that the systems and procedures in place are effective and ensure timely, responsive actions are taken to address issues identified 

The HEA Governance Oversight Framework requests assurances from institutions of their compliance with relevant legislation, Government circulars, the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies (2016), statues, charters, articles and instruments of governance. The governing authorities/bodies (GA/GB) of institutions are responsible for ensuring that the HEI maintains an internal system of good governance that enables transparency, accountability and objective decision making. They must fulfil key functions, including reviewing and guiding strategic direction and major plans of action, risk management policies and procedures, annual budgets and business plans, setting performance objectives, monitoring implementation and HEI performance, and overseeing major capital expenditure and investment decisions. The GA/GB should act on a fully informed and ethical basis, in good faith, with due diligence and care, and in the best interest of the institution, having due regards to its legal responsibilities and the objectives set by government. 

Governance structures in Irish HEIs have undergone significant transformation in recent years. However, many challenges remain. These include financial sustainability with decreasing public funding, managing complex stakeholder relationships, balancing autonomy with increased regulatory oversight and adapting to a rapidly changing external environment. 

Advance HE’s Irish HE Governance Forum 

The purpose of our Irish HE Governance Forum is to bring together senior leaders, governance professionals and governing authority members from across Irish higher education to consider trends and developments in the Irish system and discuss opportunities to continue to improve and enhance practice by bringing in insights from other systems, sectors and share experiences from across the Irish system. 

Specifically, we will analyse how the policy environment impacts governance, consider the governance and management boundary and actively consider challenges and opportunities which governing authority members will have to examine and work with, in order to discharge their responsibilities.  

Although we know that statute, regulation and process is fundamental to good governance, often the difference between having effective governance or not is as much about the culture and behaviours which are deployed by a governing body. A session at the Irish HE Governance Forum will actively consider how to foster the conditions to ensure and maintain an effective culture on the governing authority, building on the work of our project, ‘The Big Conversation: shaping the future of higher education governance’. 

Good governance is the bedrock to delivering successful higher education provision and we look forward to working with colleagues across the Irish system to support effective governance across the sector. 

We invite senior leaders, governance professionals and members of governing authorities from across Ireland to join us at the third annual Irish HE Governance Forum on 20 May in Dublin.  

Marian O’Sullivan, Governance Associate for Advance HE and Aaron Porter, Associate Director (Governance) at Advance HE.