Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Barrett is very fortunate to have Dr. Larkin.

My first question is for Mr. Costello. Much of what he had to say seemed rather depressing, whereas the contribution from Mr. Purser made me feel elated. That was somewhat confusing in terms of what we should be taking away from this meeting. Mr. Costello referred to the deterioration in the student-staff ratio. Mr. Tom Boland of the Higher Education Authority told this committee how that deterioration can lead to a deterioration in student performance as a consequence of the lack of mentoring, the isolation aspect and so on. Will Mr. Costello comment on that? Professor Morgan Kelly delivered a lecture recently in UCD on the rise of middle management and administration within the university sector and the failure to develop teaching and mentoring.

One is talking about quality and sustainability. That seems to be a major part of it. There also is a significant disparity in what one needs to pay to go to university in the South and what one needs to pay to go to university in the North.

Are there too many staff sitting in rooms doing research and writing books that nobody will read and not enough staff teaching? I mean teaching in a thousand different ways. I mean mentoring, for instance - an MIT system of teaching. Last week I telephoned two colleagues whom I know well and both of them teach one hour a week. Would the delegation comment on that?

Mr. Purser spoke of good news, and it was excellent. He stated that 75% of companies were confident that graduates have the right workplace and transferable skills. What was the outline of the companies? Were they technology or scientific companies? What kind of companies were they? What was the cross-correlation of the 20,000 students who were assessed on this? From where did they come? From what disciplines did they come? What was the balance of the disciplines? Were they mainly from the sciences and the technology area or from biotechnology, or were they from the arts and humanities? What was the balance?

Mr. Purser made an interesting point about the lack of language teaching at primary education. He found in the study that there was a lower level of satisfaction from companies in the ability to speak foreign languages. The lack of language teaching in primary education outside of Gaeilge is something that we have brought up in this committee.

Mr. Purser's paper is extraordinary. I would have to admit that in listening to him I might have been in what as Gaeilge we call "rang a haon" - it means first class - in that I would not have had his genius and the knowledge of an economic background. However, one of the most interesting points is what many of the professors of economics he mentioned say about how important education is for education's sake, that we do not always necessarily need an economic graph because there is such a thing as family happiness and social cohesion, and that the idea that we all go to university to get a job is a given. Of course it is a major factor but education is for and by itself. Are there a lot of studies on that?

The presentation was so considerable followed by our contribution that I will stop now, and maybe come back in later.