By Niall Gormley
The desire to increase the prestige of education institutions is valid. We have had the evolution of the Institutions of Technology into Technological Universities with new amalgamations creating advantages of scale and identity.
In Dublin the creation of TU Dublin by putting IT Blanchardstown, IT Tallaght and the many parts of DIT together seems to have worked well so far, helped indeed by the stunning new campus at Grangegorman.
So it’s understandable that the City of Dublin Education and Training Board would want to improve the identity and prestige of its many colleges and centres around the city by creating a central identity.
Whether we like it or not, the identity of education institutions matters in the wider world, whether it involves real differences in education standards or snob values. The Irish education system has worked hard to ensure that qualifications are based on real learning goals and the work of Quality and Qualifications Ireland with the development of the National Framework of Qualification has been nothing short of brilliant.
In the last ten years I have studied at various institutions from evening courses at Cavan Institute, to ongoing adult education at TU Dublin, private provision with Irish Times Training and finally a full-time masters at Dublin City University. In all of these cases I was able to have my learning certified through module and course validation. Each of these providers have prestige and reputations at the level they offer education.
So I full understand the logic of what the City of Dublin ETB is trying to do. In their launch statement they said: “This development marks a significant milestone in the evolution of FET in Dublin, reinforcing a coherent, learner-centred approach that supports ease of access, progression, flexibility, and quality across the entire learner journey.”
So ‘City of Dublin FET College’ is the institution which will encompass these goals and provide the greater institutional backbone to the education offered at all the colleges and centres involved.
Too unwieldy
But I think the naming concept gets in the way of many of these goals. It’s far too unwieldy to gain popular recognition and smothers the identity of the colleges involved.
Take, for example, Ballyfermot College of Further Education. This college has a big reputation in media and creative circles and has been mentioned many times at the Academy Awards. Although it evolved from being called ‘Senior College’ to Ballyfermot College of Further Education in 2000, it’s still referred to as Senior College by some locally, including myself, as I hosted a radio programme with the local radio station there in the 1990s.
It’s new name is City of Dublin FET College, Ballyfermot, Southwest Campus.
I don’t think this is going to fly. Perhaps I’m biased as a journalist, but I think communication values are vital in building a brand and identity. Easy recognition and understanding are the key. This doesn’t mean you can’t come up with something new, but if you do, it has to be easy to build the brand.
I think there’s a few problems with the naming. It’s trying to convey too many things at once.
‘City of Dublin’ is strong. It’s a phrase that’s not used too much elsewhere and could be really good if identified with further education.
The inclusion of the FET acronym doesn’t work, not least because it’s not widely understood outside education circles.
Losing local identities
The names of the various colleges are lost in the overall description threatening to impact on their individual identities, which are really strong locally and sometimes nationally.
I’m baffled, really, by the inclusion of the ‘campus’ names. A campus, by definition, refers to college buildings and their surrounding grounds. The campuses alluded to here are really areas of the city which only make sense if you have access to the map, shown here on the previous page. I don’t see any benefit to education users of including what seems to be an administrative structure.
I think something like CDC Ballyfermot would work much better, where CDC means City of Dublin College. There is a much better chance of building recognition of a short three letter acronym brand, a common feature of the Irish education landscape.
This criticism might seem trivial but the marriage of qualification and institution still holds. A quick look on LinkedIn shows that most people cite the qualifications they have alongside the institution where they studied.
The City of Dublin ETB is right to aim to build a bigger brand out of the further education colleges and centres that they operate. Further education has a huge role to play in the future of Irish education. Perhaps a rethink about identity is required or even hiring some external branding and marketing expertise.
