Dr. Michele O'Dwyer:

I thank the committee for inviting me here today to join the conversation, which is pivotal not only for our industry but Ireland as a whole. As a member of the department of management and marketing in the University of Limerick, I teach entrepreneurship, innovation and marketing to undergraduate, postgraduate and executive students. Education in this context is characterised by the saying "running to stand still", with dynamic inputs, such as evolving learning styles and technologies on one hand, and changing employer demands and industry opportunities on the other.

That combination of evolving inputs demands continual innovation and resource renewal.

The reduction in funding for the third level sector in recent years has impacted students, graduates and our country itself in many ways, three of which I will highlight. The first of these relates to the student experience.Minimising the impact of resource reduction on the student experience has been fundamental to university activities and practices during the past decade. Increased student numbers and correspondingly worse staff-students ratios have resulted in several inevitable consequences, including larger class sizes, reduced numbers of tutorials, reduced time to devote to individual students, reduced programme offerings such as electives and specialist modules, and reduced introduction of new programmes to meet new economic, technological, scientific, social and regulatory imperatives. These challenges impact both the current student experience and the future-proofing of student learning.

The second issue is the impact on research activity. An increased workload results in academics having less time to devote to translational research which addresses scientific, industrial, technological and societal issues. It starves innovation and stifles knowledge transfer. This affects academics in their individual and professional capacity, which in turn affects the reputation of Irish universities. The consequences of that are reflected in the recent university rankings. Irish universities have become less attractive for international investment and funding opportunities, less attractive to leading international academics and less attractive to international students. There is less opportunity to locate cutting-edge companies beside research centres of excellence.

The third impact of the reduction in funding relates to the future of the country. The funding challenges of the past decade have curtailed maintenance and development of what was an adequate hard and soft third level infrastructure. Lack of investment or reduced investment in technology and other learner supports have affected teaching, making it much more difficult to innovate pedagogically in line with students' environment. Students are working with facilities, equipment and technologies which are neither world class nor best in class. In addition, insufficient funding limits faculty engagement in current debates in international settings. Staff absence at the forefront of developing knowledge and technology means that although they can facilitate learning for today, they are not sufficiently equipped to facilitate learning for tomorrow. This directly impacts Ireland's competitiveness, our ability to attract foreign direct investment and our economic stability.