Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Professor Brown spoke about common guidelines rather than standards. Does he see this as something the academic world should work on or which the Government should lay down? He also mentioned the infrastructure around the country. During my time with the London School of Economics, we delivered programmes in places such as Cavan and north Mayo by holding weekend top ups. Recently, a television programme featured a progressive young farmer who wanted to study animal husbandry over the Internet, but the broadband was not good enough to support it. Is the infrastructure in the country limiting the scope of developing online learning platforms?

I have worked with some development programmes in Trinity College over the years and I know the system is very good. However, I return to the core content, the academic staff and their time. Developing the programme and putting the core content online is one thing; supporting the learners is another. In my own time, I remember learners raising questions with me on Christmas Day. God help them, they had little to do. Could Professor Savage comment on this?

Professor MacCraith mentioned the clusters, and I have a major interest in this, given the development of technological universities and academic clusters or centres of excellence. Professor MacCraith mentioned co-operation with DkIT and NUI Maynooth, and that it will be possible to deliver a lecture in DCU and transmit it to both those centres. This raises the fact that the lecturer is delivering three lectures for the price of one, while the colleges are charging for three. I am not sure how it is costed and funded, not that I would dream of bringing my trade union credentials in here.