Ms Yvonne Croskery:

I will respond first to the question on Erasmus+ and the collaboration between colleges in Northern Ireland and their counterparts in the Republic. As I said, Colleges Northern Ireland is the umbrella body for the six further education colleges in Northern Ireland. It has been working on taking forward Erasmus+, Horizon 2020 and INTERREG projects. It has developed a series of strategic partnerships, including with the institutes of technology in Galway, Mayo, Sligo and Dundalk, to put in joint bids to boost skills and employability, including in terms of training and youth work. South West College proceeded with a £3 million bid under INTERREG IVA. It worked in partnership with the institutes of technology in Sligo and Cavan, and Dumfries and Galloway College. Through that, CREST is focused on research and development facilities for small enterprises. It was a very successful bid. Colleges Northern Ireland, through Dr. Alan Blair, is currently collaborating with its counterparts to put forward a series of bids this year for Erasmus+.

The Chairman asked about shared degrees. I have no details to hand on shared degrees. We can provide the information at a later date.

With regard to the Northern Ireland policy for higher education, Graduating to Success, the importance of cross-Border co-operation is highlighted clearly, along with undergraduate mobility between institutes in Northern Ireland and the Republic, from economic, cultural and social perspectives. We are committed to working on an all-Ireland basis to remove the barriers, be they real or perceived, to encourage student mobility and support higher education institutes in collaborating on both teaching and learning on a cross-Border basis. We have been working with the Department of Education and Skills very closely on the implementation of the recommendations of the IBEC–CBI report, to which I referred. It considers barriers to undergraduate student mobility. We will continue to examine this.