Professor Brian Norton:

Within level 8. If one is a level 8 student, one of the opportunities we provide is to study part time in the work environment, then full time, etc and have the ability to take modules in different locations. For example, in the hospitality sector a student might be able to take certain modules in the city centre or Tallaght or Blanchardstown while working and build his or her degree in that way and, because of the scale of the institution, gain a huge breadth of opportunities to interact with facilities and staff, thereby enabling us to construct programmes. The nature of advances in sectors is fast and new sectors emerge during the four years of an undergraduate programme. The ability to have pathways to change direction and the scale to do this with reasonable effectiveness while using public resources effectively is important. A philosophy that must be linked with this - it is a bigger agenda for another day - is that we intend that all those enrolled graduate. People coming into a programme are inculcated with good learning skills and provided with appropriate pathways to appropriate qualifications. We will not have the waste mentioned.