Averil Power (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the delegations for their presentations. I accept savings have to be squeezed out across the year rather than the academic year. I would not necessarily agree with squeezing courses to make them shorter, however. There is significant potential in that third level teaching buildings are empty for up to half of the year and we could be running two terms within a year. Is there an actual figure on the efficiencies that could be achieved through consolidation and collaboration of universities?

I agree with the points already made on the potential of online education. It is important there are proper contact hours with students along with tutorials, however. There is as much interaction in taking a lecture on a computer screen in one's living room as there is in a lecture hall, particularly in large group lectures such as in arts but the engagement part of the learning process provided by tutorials is still necessary. Some institutions have done good work in this area and some are miles ahead in it. Dublin City University, DCU, has been a pioneer in this area for a long time. However, it is very disparate across the sector. Does the HEA have an overall strategy for online learning? It has significant potential and instead of leaving it to individual institutions much more work must be done realising this potential.

Deputy Ó Ríordáin rightly pointed out that league tables do not capture issues such as Access and the effort put into such programmes by third level institutions. They also do not capture the quality of teaching or learning as these tables are very much skewed by research and publications figures. To what extent is the HEA monitoring teaching quality and the impact the cuts over the past several years have had on it? Certainly, the indications from the institutions is that the interactive parts of education such as tutorials and lab sessions are being cut back.

I note from the presentation that the university presidents will come back on recommendations on entry into third level by the end of the year. When we had them before the committee, it was obvious there were different views on it and some were a lot less keen on it than others.

How does Ms Doyle see that working? Will it be up to each individual institution to decide or will there be a sectoral position on it? People will be reluctant to jump away from the points system. Will that work across a sectoral base or merely for individual colleges?

Has an assessment been conducted on the impact of the removal of postgraduate grants from an access point of view? During the summer the indications were that applications were down for many postgraduate courses. Has the Department conducted an analysis of the longer-term impact on access to postgraduate education, not only from an educational point view but, as I raised previously when the Minister was present, from the point of view of the economic cost, in a broader sense, of not having graduates trained with the skills we will need when the economy turns around?