UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN
HONORARY CONFERRING
Thursday, 3 September 2015 at 5.30 p.m.
TEXT OF THE INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS DELIVERED BY PROFESSOR MAEVE CONRICK on 3 September 2015, on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Literature, honoris causa on ÁINE HYLAND
President, Honoured Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen,
The award by UCD of the degree of Doctor of Literature honoris causa to Professor Áine Hyland today is a fitting tribute to the outstanding role she has played in education and in public life in Ireland. A true pioneer in her vision for education at all levels from primary to Higher Education, her contribution to research, teaching and learning and national policy marks a turning point in our conception of Higher Education in Ireland. The impact of her work reverberates far beyond these shores.
Born in Co Meath, the third child of Tom and Peggy Donlon, Áine showed early academic promise, securing several scholarships at a very young age and finishing her secondary school education with a Leaving Certificate result in the top ten in the country. After the family’s move to Dublin, Áine began her professional career with success in the very competitive Civil Service Junior Executive Officer examination, which resulted in her appointment to a post in the Department of Education in Marlborough Street, Dublin, where she spent almost five years. While working as a research assistant to the Investment in Education team, she met Bill Hyland, who was to become her husband. When Bill was appointed to the UN office in Geneva, Áine joined him and they married there. Their daughter, Fiona was born in Geneva and after Bill was appointed Senior Statistician in the Department of Education in 1966, they returned to Dublin where their daughters Niamh and Sonja were born. Áine could not return to work in the Civil Service, as the marriage bar was still in force in Ireland then. However, the Civil Service’s loss was Education’s gain, as Áine became a student at UCD, taking the BA (evening degree) and undertaking her postgraduate study, Masters and PhD in Education, at TCD. She was appointed Admissions Officer and Senior Lecturer in Education at Carysfort College and subsequently returned to UCD as Senior Lecturer for a time, before accepting the Chair of Education at University College Cork in 1993. Shortly afterwards, her husband Bill sadly passed away. Áine went on to become Vice-President of UCC for seven years, the post from which she retired in 2006. ‘Retirement’ is certainly a misnomer in her case, as Áine continues to produce a very substantial body of work both nationally and internationally.
Áine’s contribution to education is inestimable; she has been involved in numerous initiatives over the course of her career, beginning with the key role she played as Researcher to the Investment in Education project, the first ever OECD review of national policies for education (OECD, 1991: 7), on which she worked as a very young civil servant in the 1960s and which was described by Professor John Coolahan as ‘one of the foundation documents of modern Irish education’ (Coolahan 1980: 165). From that early experience of research into Irish education, Áine continued publishing numerous influential papers and books on educational topics, the impact of which is still being felt. For example, her paper entitled Entry to Higher Education in Ireland in the 21st Century (Hyland, 2011) – generally referred to as The Hyland Report - set the scene for the ongoing process examining the transition between second and third level education. This 2011 critique of the points system is a further thread in this particular strand of her research, following on from the work of the Commission on the Points System which she chaired in 1998-99.
The list of Áine’s contributions to research and on the wider stage of public policy is so extensive that it would be impossible to list all her achievements. She was a member of the Constitutional Review Group (1995-96); Vice-Chair of the Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences (2003-09), a founder of the multi-denominational Dalkey School Project, and subsequently Chair of Educate Together. She is currently a member of the Press Council of Ireland and of the Bar Council Professional Tribunal.
Her influence and impact are truly international, given her long-standing links with the Carnegie Foundation and Harvard and her pioneering work on Multiple Intelligences. Recognition of her expertise in education internationally is underlined by her membership of the European Universities’ Association institutional evaluation panel, under the aegis of which she been involved in the evaluation of many European universities in Portugal, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Romania.
In sum, education has permeated Áine’s life and she is a true exponent of the scholarship of discovery and the scholarship of teaching and learning (Boyer, 1990). Above all, she is a powerful example of the generosity towards others which characterises the attitude of the best academics towards their students and colleagues. Many in Ireland and abroad have benefitted from Áine’s knowledge and expertise, not to mention her boundless enthusiasm. UCD is proud to count her among its alumnae and we substantiate that esteem by honouring her today.
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Praehonorabilis Praeses, totaque Universitas,
Praesento vobis hanc meam filiam, quam scio tam moribus quam doctrina habilem et idoneam esse quae admittatur, honoris causa, ad Gradum Doctoratus in Litteris; idque tibi fide mea testor ac spondeo, totique Academiae.