Dr. Anthony Soares:

First, I will address the question on information for students on third level education opportunities in the South. The Department of Employment and Learning cross-Border working group is looking at providing that type of information to students on both sides of the Border. We must recognise that higher education institutions operate in a marketplace and that universities when enrolling students tend to look at the markets they want to attract. Perhaps work needs to be done to underline the need for high quality highly skilled graduates to stay within the island of Ireland in order to address the economic issues we have, especially in the Border region. I must highlight that work has been done on the question of alternative qualifications. For example, the North West Regional College has worked with colleges on the other side of the Border and they work well together. I spoke recently to the chief executive of the North West Regional College who told me about the many excellent students he has from County Donegal. He welcomes the fact there are many students from County Donegal in the North West Regional College. There have been questions raised at a political level on budgetary pressures that arise from the student flows through the North West Regional College and other colleges in Northern Ireland.

Perhaps the Departments need to work together to address what are sometimes perceived as budgetary pressures on the colleges. However, I must emphasise that the colleges say this is not a problem; they welcome those students and want that student flow to continue.

Work has been done in offering joint courses on a North-South basis, particularly at master's and PhD levels, where universities are co-operating and offering joint postgraduate courses. However, there may be space for this type of work at undergraduate level also. For example, in terms of student movement under the Erasmus programme, students see this as an opportunity to leave the island to go to other universities abroad, but perhaps there is room to use the existing Erasmus scheme to promote a greater North-South student flow at that level.