Mr. Tim Conlon:

I will be brief. Dr. Maguire will give the Cathaoirleach chapter and verse because he is far more expert in academic assessment than I am. I will address what we see coming through. This goes to the Cathaoirleach's earlier point as well about students who are leaving second level and going on to higher education. One of the challenges we perhaps have - and again, this legislation addresses it efficiently - is we are not strong enough on lifelong learning. It might be that an individual of school-leaving age does not think about higher education as an option at that point in time but may want to go back later in life. Our system is not as strong as it could be with respect to lifelong learning opportunities or returning to education later and the international evidence shows this. That is improving, and we are seeing changes as a result, for example, of the experience of the emergency online provision during the Covid pandemic that there will be new and different ways. However, to date one of the challenges of the system has been how do we take a more flexible approach to students at a later stage in life who might want to come into higher education.

On students coming into higher education without the appropriate academic capital, for want of a better expression, institutions do a lot, such as remedial maths programmes for example, to support students who might not have the required maths.

The required maths is an underpinning part of so many programmes such as ICT. Institutions can do a lot but the revision of the second cycle has been very successful. Important work is happening there and it is important for higher education institutions education to that accordingly. There are two sides to it and we need to make sure that we work together appropriately. That is my observation on it.