Ms Caitríona Ryan:

The Higher Education Authority, HEA, pays a core grant to all institutions. In that core grant, there is an extra weighting for all students who come into the institution from the national access target groups. That would include Travellers and would be an extra 33% on the standard funding for every student. That funding follows the student throughout his or her higher education journey, from first year to completion. That supports the institution in putting in place the pre-entry and, most important, the post-entry supports to help the student through the system. This ensures whatever supports, be they academic or social, are in place to enable them to complete successfully. Access is about retention and completion too.

Within the national access plan, there is an objective about student success. The completion rates for students from the target groups are somewhat lower – but only marginally lower - than completion rates more generally. We chair a student success working group which comprises representatives and stakeholders throughout the sector. We work closely with the national forum for teaching and learning to identify what works for student success, particularly for the target groups, identifying good practice and how can it be shared across the system and put in place in other institutions.

We had a student success symposium in October at which we brought together students and listened to the student voice as to what works and what initiatives are supporting students to successful completion. Traveller students were very much part of that symposium, both in the audience and panel-led discussions.

In addition to the core funding and student success initiatives, all institutions would have an access infrastructure in place.

That access infrastructure also manages the financial supports as well as the other supports and the student assistance fund. That is available to all students, particularly students from the target groups. The path 1 bursaries are also available to students to apply for, and Traveller students have a very high success rate in securing those bursaries when they apply. The other path funding to which I referred is an additional funding stream for institutions to put in place both pre-entry and post-entry supports such that there is a holistic perspective on access, not just getting through the door of the institution.