Pages 24 & 25

24 U.C.D. and the Future

Notes (i) Figures in column B are taken from the accounts of
U.C.D. (excluding the faculty of General Agriculture) for the year end-
ing 30th June, 1956, as published by the Government Publications Office.

(ii) With regard to item No. 2 above, departmental salaries, the
figure given includes salaries of professors and lecturers (£109,455) and
those of assistants and demonstrators (£88,092). Difficulty was experi-
enced in trying to assess what factor should be used to give an
approximation for the salaries of the teaching staff after expansion, as
neither in the statistics published from the Central Statistics Office,
nor in the Annual Reports of the President, are the salaries of professors
quoted independently of the salaries of lecturers, nor do we know what
proportion of the total sum goes to full-time and what to part-time
teachers. In order to achieve the total number of full-time teaching staff
(c.380) needed, the overall factor for number would be 2.4 (based on
staff and student numbers in 1952-53). However the expansion in the
number of professors would need to be of the order of say 10% only,
while the expansion in the numbers of lecturers would be of the order of
240% and in assistants and demonstrators at least 300%. Some of us
hold that it is in the case of the full-time lecturers that the greatest %
increase would be required, the increase for assistants and demonstrators
being correspondingly reduced. Without knowing the average 1956 salary
of each group it is impossible to arrive at a correct overall factor for
estimated increase due to salaries. The factor of 2 used in the table is
probably conservative. In Britain the salaries and superannuation of
teaching staff now run at 45% of the total annual recurrent expenditure
of the universities.

(iii) Item three above, departmental wages, has been multiplied
by a factor of 3 which again is probably conservative. The wages under
the heading are paid largely to technicians and typists and the ratio
of these increasingly important workers to teaching staff in U.C.D. and
in other universities here, and abroad until recently, is too low to enable
the academic staff to work to their capacity. In technical research
departments, it has been shown that it is necessary to employ at least
two skilled technicians to each graduate member of staff in order that
the graduate member may fully employ his talents. A similar situation
exists in the humanities where a shortage of typists, indexing, abstracting,
and library assistants decreases enormously the efficient operation of
academic staff. To allow a factor of 3 for this body of staff, where the
factor for academic staff is 2.4, is again conservative.

(iv) Item 4, departmental materials, largely those used in teaching
and research in the medical and technological departments. Here again
the factor 3 is probably conservative. The proposed expansion will allow
students to work in much small groups than at present and hence the
amount of materials used in practical classes will be increased. Further,
the purchase of apparatus for student use will increase several-fold. The
amount of research done in these subjects should likewise increase
enormously with the increase in teaching and technical staffs — for
example in Engineering the Commission's Report points out that research
has been hitherto virtually non-existent due to lack of space and of
staff.

Problems in the Proposed Move 25

(v) The factor for library expansion (item 5) allows for an increase
of only 20%. It is hope that the centralisation of library facilities might
reduce the need for an immediate increase in staff under this heading.
The increasing importance of books and journals in all branches of
learning, together with constantly increasing costs, make the suggested
increase very conservative.

(vi) The items summarised under No. 12 above include in the
figures for the year 1955-56, £5,286 in salaries and wages for upkeep
of the athletic grounds at Belfield. Doubtless the upkeep of Iveagh Gardens
is included in item No. 6. It is impossible to estimate at present
what sum would be required for the upkeep of the whole of the College
estate at Stillorgan Road (252 acres). The Architectural Advisory Board
envisages large-scale landscaping of the site, tree-planting, etc., as well
as the provision of extra playing fields, and swimming pools. Any pro-
vision for upkeep under this heading is further complicated by the fact
that no informaton is available as to whether or not halls of residence
will in fact be built on the estate, and whether or not the upkeep of their
grounds would be a charge on the College.

An important consideration under this heading and that of Item
No. 6 is the fact that the cleaning and maintenance of all roadways, car
parks, foot-paths, and their lighting after dark, on the College campus
would be a charge on the College if it is built on its own private grounds,
whereas expansion in the city makes use of the public roadways and
other amenities.

Taking all in all, it will be seen that once again a factor of 3 may
be so conservative as to be misleading in the case of Item No. 12 as
may be the factor 2 in the case of Item No. 6.

(vii) No account is taken in the above estimates of any expenses
in connection with the faculties of General Agriculture or of Veterinary
Medicine. The Commission is anxious to see the Agricultural students
of the 3rd and 4th years reunited with the general student body on the
same campus. However, the whole future of the relationship between
the College and the faculty of Agriculture, and the question of the pro-
vision for it of a new 600 acre farm, is so undecided as to make futile
any guess as to future expenses to be borne by the College in this
regard.

(viii) All the calculations are based on the year 1955-56. There
have been in the interval substantial increases in salaries and other ex-
penses, and doubtless by the time a new College could be completed (up
to 12 or more years hence) the running costs of the present College
would have increased still further. Hence the annual expenditure of
£1,000,000 represents the very lowest estimate that would apply if
salaries and commodity prices remained fixed at the 1956 levels.

(ix) The above calculations are based on a full-time student body
of 3,046 (the 1953-54 level). The College envisaged by the Commission
would serve approximately 5,000 full-time students and consequently
certain items in the above would appreciably increase.