Dr. Edward Lahiff:

I thank Deputy Smith for his questions. We have had this close collaboration. There is always some tension in academic life. Do we follow policy directly or maintain some objectivity and distance? We try to get the balance right. We are clear there is a strong need to get people trained and a strong interest from students and organisations, State and NGO, for study in this field.

We have about 120 students at a time, who are predominantly Irish, taking the undergraduate programme but in our Ethiopian master's programme, the students are 100% Ethiopian and are selected by the Ethiopian Government. These are mid-career professionals based in rural areas who come into an Ethiopian university and study a degree which is co-branded as a joint degree from Makele University in Tigre and UCC. The students never come to UCC but the course is jointly taught by local academics and ourselves. That goes to the issue of building up local capacity. The model we use in working with universities in Ethiopia and elsewhere, such as Tanzania and South Africa, is always one of capacity building. We never want to take people away from their homes, train them and send them out into the world. We do not work with the individual, we always work with institutions. We might take a member of staff who has been trained up to PhD level and work with his home institution so he can go back there in future to work. Even if he moves on, as some people do, at least the home university has benefited through the process so it can do it the next time.