Mr. Paul Hannigan:

I will try to answer the questions generally without referring specifically to those who asked them.

There is a fundamental problem from our perspective that we have failed to convince the political system that there is a crisis in higher education with respect to funding. No matter how we have tried to do this in the past few years, we have failed. The problem is that we, like any other sector in the public service, have taken one for the country in the context of making sure there is economic revival. People took on board the serious cutbacks made for each institution and tried to work through them to come out the best they could at the far end. We are in real difficulty and need to have it addressed. A consistent message is developing with respect to the overall development of higher education and whether it is the institutes of technology, the universities or the HEA, we are saying the same thing. We have to move beyond trying to convince the political system. There is a real issue which needs to be dealt with and there will be huge implications if we fail to deal with it.

From the point of view of level 6 and 7 provision, in fairness to the HEA it has listened to the institutions in the past few years and tried to equalise the funding model with respect to the provision of level 6, 7 and 8 programmes and that has been an incentive for institutions to maintain the provision of level 6 and 7 programmes across the country. Nobody is walking away from this provision, which is clear from the comments made so far. That is the consistent message from institutes of technology.

I am probably better placed than anybody to comment on regional provision as president of LYIT. It is important that politicians look at the contribution institutes of technology and universities have made across the country. There has been a turnaround in society with respect to education generally. When one considers the completion rate for the leaving certificate examination, the transfer rate to higher education, the price and value people are putting on higher education, the provision of that service throughout the country and the movement of students from second level to higher education, it is very much a regional product. The enrolments of universities and institutes of technology predominantly comprise people living within the region in which they are located. There is a strong regional input from higher education generally. That allows us to engage with business, as Mr. Donohoe outlined, create opportunities for new businesses coming into regions and then create opportunities for graduates to stay in and develop these regions. Regional provision is, therefore, important from our perspective in the context of any discussion. We want to continue to meet the targets and ambitions we have set for ourselves.

The retention of students is a complex issue. I have been involved for the past ten or 15 years and we produced the first review of retention in the IT sector in 1999. We looked at the myriad issues that impacted on whether a student remained in a programme. We have not been good at relaying into the public domain that when students discontinue a programme, the majority make their way back the following year, perhaps into different programmes or new areas of study. Conscious and definite decisions are taken by both students and families to redirect from where they had started out. In one way that is a positive in people making a decision early to correct what they have done and move to another area of study. There are also the issues outlined by Professor Norton such as hardship, etc, which have had a major impact in the past few years. Every institution is aware of this issue and making definite attempts to address it.

The issue of the criteria has been clearly articulated in the documentation from the HEA. Some of the institutes see them as overly stringent in the context of what is being asked of them in moving towards a technological university, but that debate will have to be engaged in on an ongoing basis. I take into consideration what has been said by Mr. Costello and committee members about universities having had to meet the criteria to be called a university. I accept this.