Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank both of the speakers and the whole team for the exceptionally valuable work they have done in producing the report. It is exceptionally important that we act on it sooner rather than later. In the engagement with the heads of all of our third-level institutions nationally there was obviously discussion around funding to support that third-level structure, but was there any discussion around the autonomy afforded to the heads of those institutions as to how they spend funding within their own universities and institutes of technology, respectively? Was there any discussion around giving them greater freedom or autonomy to spend those funds as they see fit to maximise the benefit to their students in terms of recruitment of academics, incentivisation and developing a culture of excellence in each institution? Do the witnesses see any further autonomy being given to the heads of our institutions as to how they spend the resources that are available to them?

We were very fortunate to be able to engage with the heads of all of those institutions a couple of weeks ago in this very room. There was significant discussion at that time around the national training levy and the fact that it is now running a surplus, albeit a fairly small one. There was also discussion of how that might be further leveraged to support third-level education given that it is the mechanism whereby most of industry contributes at the moment, predominantly to the FET sector. While our young people saw FET as an end in itself 30 or 40 years ago, it is increasingly the case that it offers a very clear and structured progression route through to third level. On that basis, would the witnesses support a diversion of a significant amount of the training levy to third level and a consequent increase in the contribution towards that levy from industry itself?

We are all very much aware that the cost per student of education in a third-level structure depends very much on the course a student is participating in. For example, while the average cost of providing education per student is approximately €8,000, the cost for a medical student is €30,000 per annum.

Some jurisdictions have looked at banding the fees that would somehow be subsumed into a loan structure. On the basis that those who avail of those higher cost courses would expect to see a significant boost in their income as a result of participating in those courses, was there any exploration of the banding structure and subsuming it into our structure? I think one existed in Australia.