DCU professor appointed to higher education expert group

Professor Ronan Powell of Dublin City University’s Business School has been appointed to a new group which will examine the future funding policy of higher education. The group is charged with identifying and considering the issues relating to the long term sustainable funding of Higher Education in Ireland and to identify options for change.

It is envisaged that the overall work programme of the expert group will be managed in six distinct modules: Demand, benefits, income/expenditure, efficient and effective sector, measuring financial performance and long term funding. It is expected that an interim report will be provided to the Minister for Education and Skills by the end of 2014 and a full report is anticipated to be provided before the end of next year.

Ronan Powell has been Professor of Finance at DCU Business School for the past year, previously holding the position of an Associate Professor of Finance at the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales in Sydney. Professor Powell also spent time as a Finance lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast, prior to his move to Australia. His qualifications include a PhD from the University of Essex and his expertise lies in the area of corporate finance, with an emphasis on the valuation consequences of mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and innovative investments

Powell has also won external grant funding for his research from the Centre for International Finance and Regulation (CIFR) in Australia, and the Science Foundation Ireland (in conjunction with the Irish Research Council). He has been published in leading international journals, including the Journal of Financial Economics, Journal of Corporate Finance, Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, and the Journal of Banking and Finance. He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Business Finance and Accounting.