Education is about understanding, being critical, not being afraid to question. It’s about giving you a vocabulary, being articulate At ground level, the financing of College will be an uppermost concern. It’s a challenge that every Provost has had to face in their time. ‘The last time we were coming out of a major recession; this time we are coming out of a pandemic. There are holes in our funds as a result.’ She says she believes in ‘strong publicly funded institutions, and at sector level making that case is really important.’ At a global level, university leaders are increasingly finding themselves in the strange position of having to justify the place of third-level education itself. It’s ‘a pushback against the pushback against intellectualism’, as the Provost puts it, with the currents of populism swirling and the role of experts in society being continually undermined. Enemies of intellectualism spin their opponents as a new elite, but Provost Doyle points out the phoniness of such a proposition: ‘I believe that the vast majority of people rejoice in the ability to access third-level education, irrespective of what might happen afterwards jobwise. Education is about understanding, being critical, not being afraid to question. It’s about giving you a vocabulary, being articulate – giving people the tools and skills to question what’s put in front of them, and interpret information, whether it’s real or not. Not everyone needs to go on to third-level education, but everyone who wants to should be able to.’ The Trinity community, as Provost Doyle sees it, includes the people who work here, study here, and all the people who were here before. She not only wants to extend the reach of Trinity to those who might not otherwise have considered pursuing a university education, but to every last person who has passed through its hallowed halls and colonnades. ‘Alumni represent who we are and what we’ve achieved,’ she says. ‘If I read about someone and find out they went to Trinity, my heart skips a beat!’ Engaging with alumni will be an important part of her mission. ‘I want to take it to the next level,’ she says. ‘If you haven’t been in contact, we want to hear from you. There are so many more things we can do – I’m open to all and any suggestions. We have so many people out there doing so many amazing things. I’m interested in what everyone has to say.’
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