Dr. Joseph Ryan:

I am happy to start off with this and to leave space for my colleagues to come in if that is agreeable. On the question of apprenticeship, the Covid impact is exacerbating a backlog that was already there. As Senator Byrne knows, in apprenticeships we move through the phases and there is that mixture of theory and practice. It is the practice bit that has been very difficult. We have had to re-order theory and practice. The reason I mentioned the meeting tomorrow is that we are trying to take a holistic approach to see what we can do in a very focused way to address that backlog.

On the question of clubs and societies mentioned by Senator Byrne, the critical bit is around the student experience, so a lot of attention is being given to try to fuel that and to build it back up. I did mention the uneven impact of the pandemic. Some students have been in college while others, just by the nature of the domain that they are in, that is, in large-scale pieces like business or social care, are the ones that have been most disadvantaged. If a student is on a three-year programme, he or she will have seen very little of the institution in the past while. People are very conscious of addressing that. It also brings us into areas like re-orientation and additional orientation, not just for those coming in into first year but for those going into second year. They are being addressed at the moment.

Finally, on learning outcomes and progression rates, a lot of work is being done on this by the chief academic officers. We are delighted to note that progression rates are very good. There are learnings from Covid, and I will not delay the meeting on that, but it is something that we are tracking.