Dr. Charles Larkin:

There is a developing section of economics which works hand in glove with psychology called the economics of happiness. Professor Richard Layard in the UK who was the research assistant for the Robbins report, which created the modern higher education system in Britain, has published extensively on this. There is something that can be developed but it is a matter of getting the initial data together to look at that question. Professor McMahon in the University of Illinois has calculated this into his non-economic returns to higher education.

Senator Craughwell referred to further education, credits and progression. There are many aspects to costs which can be examined in terms of progressing from further education into higher education. Significant data and analysis has been done in the UK about this because they have this question about where FET dovetails into higher education and the OECD has done good work on this. I bring the attention of members again to the 2015 edition of Going for Growth and pages 220 and 221 which reference Ireland. There are recommendations relating to FET activities for labour market activation policies as well as recommendations on research and development policies, which would dovetail with the DEJI approach to universities. As was highlighted by Mr. Costello, there is a constant tension between what the Department of Education and Skills and DEJI hope to achieve as policy objectives in the higher education sector. That is sometimes difficult to reconcile because universities are seen as elements of the national industrial policy. If one were to go back to the mid-1950s and examine higher education policy and the analysis of human capital policy, they were not seen as much as part of the national industrial policy but as part of a wider social and manpower policy.