As the University of Galway commences its recruitment process for the fourteenth President of the University, it is a good time to reflect on our past and consider our ambitions for the future. With that in mind, I spoke to students and staff in the University and asked them what skills and values they think are important for the next president.
Adequate Accommodation
One issue repeatedly raised by students was the critical lack of accommodation on campus and in Galway City at large of any type, at any price range. Students face annual anxiety over whether they will be able to secure accommodation for the next academic year – even those whose are willing to pay anything, for anything. Each year, a large cohort of students are left lacking, with no option but to drop their course, defer their studies for another year, or commute long distances at great expense. Some students said they even took to living out of hotels in previous years, but that this was no longer possible since many hotels have been accommodating refugees and the remainder have drastically increased their prices in response to the reduced supply.
This is, of course, an issue faced by students across the country, and is exacerbated by the general housing crisis in Ireland. A paper from the Department of Education in 2024 revealed that there is, on average, three applications for every bed in student accommodation nationwide. However, students in Galway face possibly the direst dearth of accommodation in the country. Trinity, UCD, DCU, UCC and UL all offer more beds in campus accommodation than the University of Galway which only has three campus residences: Corrib Village, Goldcrest Village, and Dunlin Village. Together, they offer a combined total of 1,867 beds which are reserved principally for first year and international students. The University has close to 20,000 students in total which means these villages can only caters for about 10% of the student cohort.
So, what could the next president do? First and foremost, they should allocate funds and initiate plans for another campus residence. Preferably, they would prioritise providing basic, affordable accommodation in line with the pricing of Corrib Village, rather than its two more expensive “luxury” successors, Goldcrest and Dunlin. The President could also petition the government to provide more funding for student accommodation, perhaps through the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund. Finally, they could cooperate with private student residences to coordinate and centralise the application processes through the University website, thus lessening some of the stress and burdens on students and their families.
Return to Research
The University of Galway has a very low academic reputation for research & discovery. Our 2025 QS score is just 26.2 (out of 100) for this very metric which is a slight fall from last year’s equally depressing score of 26.3. Our scores for Teaching and Research Environment in the Times Higher Education rankings are similarly poor at 25.6 and 34.9 respectively. Researchers (doctoral and post-doctoral) in the University have highlighted some of the institutional barriers they face in performing and publishing their research.
An ever-increasing amount of administrative paperwork from risk assessments to out-of-hours forms busies researchers with unproductive ‘donkey work’ that distracts them from their research. Excessively complicated and restrictive procedures for procurement and expenses also eats up research time. Other commitments researchers take on can also reduce their time for research such as teaching, committee participation, and outreach events. However, at least these activities benefit our university community, unlike the administrative burdens. Nevertheless, researchers find themselves having less and less time available for their research during office hours and yet also face resistance carrying out research out of hours from health and safety officers.
It is essential that the next University President has experience in wet lab research and understands the value of research in a university. They should seek to lessen the administrative burdens on researchers and Principal Investigators and allow greater flexibility in our research environment to allow us to remain internationally competitive.
It is important to remember that good teaching trickles down from good research. Generally, researchers at the forefront of discovery understand their fields better than anyone else and are experienced communicators and teachers, having probably mentored many research students and presented at many seminars across the years. Talented researchers also attract students: would you rather be taught evolution by Richard Dawkins or by some unknown lecturer who has discovered nothing but may have an additional Master’s in education? How about Brian Cox and physics? Or Barack Obama and law? I think the answers are obvious. As such, the University should place greater weight on the research achievements of the academic faculty they hire going forward under a new president.
At the end of the day, it is research and teaching excellence that define a university’s reputation. Nobody sends their child to a university because of their sustainability metrics or poetic papers detailing vapid visions shaped by vacuous values. The next president must focus on the ‘bread and butter’ of academia by fundraising for research externally, funding and facilitating research internally, reforming restrictive policies, and restructuring the University organisation to enhance our research environment.
Executive Energy
To succeed in these goals, the next president will need to be an effective CEO of the University. They should have experience in a managerial role and a daring determination to enact change. They should not be afraid to reform unhelpful policies, restructure the University organisation, relocate departments, reallocate resources, redesign courses or reconsider how services are provided.
One bold move the next president could take would be to outsource more services. The buildings that are best maintained on campus are those serviced by external companies (e.g. Neylons vs Buildings & Estates), the IT services that are the most reliable are those provided by external companies (e.g. Microsoft Outlook vs University Website), and the administration processes that run the smoothest are those handled by external companies (e.g. CORE HR Vs Expenses Office).
Summary
Picking a leader is never an easy decision; I don’t envy the dilemma the hiring panel will face in approving our next president. Feedback from staff and students on the skills and values that the next president needs should help to guide this decision, however.
Whoever they are, the next president will have many challenges to face. Let us hope they have the competence and conviction of a CEO to tackle them head-on, rather than a presidential penchant to pontificate from a podium. As one senior member of faculty put it to me: “We need a Taoiseach, not a talking head”.
