Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh:

I support those comments. First, in the context of the student experience, clubs and societies are crucial for that. Supporting students in their autonomy in doing that is particularly important. We found this year even in the second semester there was a sense that there was more activity among students clubs and societies, albeit online, than we anticipated. We would like to support that. There are new societies which emerged in that context. We did a student question-and-answer exercise in February and one of the excellent suggestions was exactly the same as Senator Byrne's, which is that for second year students next year, we need an orientation. On the back of that suggestion we are thinking that we would have a re-orientation or induction for second years as well as first years. Looking at the particular needs of students, focusing always on the student need and learning from what the student has told us they need is particularly important.

It is a very different context in both learning and assessment, but we have noticed better progression rates this year than last year and better retention. They are not comparable like with like; they are much more complex but, thankfully, we have noticed better retention this year than in previous years.