Marie Louise O'Donnell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman. I have been a member of the committee for three or four years and this has been one of the most provocative half hours I have experienced in a long time. I do not know where to start. This matter is close to my heart because I have spent a great deal of my life as a teacher at third level. I was considered a pariah at one point. I recall a director of education in the university informing me "This is a research institution" and then walking off. I did not know where I was on the campus at the time. I am more interested in hearing what my colleagues have to say because I do not want to bring my own ideologies or prejudices to bear on this matter.

I wish to pick up on something Dr. Foley stated. There is a rewarding of failure. This is evident at second level where if somebody fails higher level mathematics, this is equivalent to obtaining a pass at lower level.

In all my time at university we did not fail students. We tried every way possible to pass them. We did not want to fail them, and if they failed, we did not like it and we pulled them up from a mark of 32 to 36 to 38 to try to pass them. Only if they did nothing were they in the realms of failure. That is a massive change. Therefore, when we talk about quality of teaching we are also talking about quality of learning. It is not just quality of teaching.

With regard to tracking students, is Dr. Foley aware of any surveys that have been done on this? We track them monetarily because we constantly look for money from them as alumni.