Professor Diarmuid Hegarty:

On behalf of the Higher Education Colleges Association, HECA, I thank the committee for inviting us to make this submission. Future funding models must change to include all students, public and private, and must promote accessibility and progression. HECA is proposing several ways in which funding should follow the student. The committee should reiterate its predecessor committee's recommendations, which were made four years ago, that student supports be extended to private higher education institute, HEI, students. This should include the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, disability, student assistant fund, Gaeltacht, mental health and well-being, digital and the disability access route to education, DARE, and higher education access route, HEAR, supports and be extended to part-time and blended programmes. We propose that ring-fenced quotas for delivering equality of opportunity in schools, DEIS, students in high-demand programmes should be introduced to guarantee them minimum numbers of positions. Resources should target increasing learner participation from disadvantaged areas in all third-level pathways. We stress that the committee should be mindful the participation rate in third level in Dublin 10 is 16% whereas in Dublin 6 it is 99%.

Published data show private sector average costs of €6,500, yielding average savings of €2,500 to €3,500 per student per annum, indicate that if the argument is that money is not available, then cost economies should be availed of in the private sector. That was the argument made against this committee’s recommendation to the Civil Service, which said no money was available. That is despite an amazing miracle where €250 per student was found during Covid-19, which shows money can be found if the will is there.

The resources of private higher education should also be harnessed to address the increasing demographic and national skills challenges, which is already happening to some extent with Springboard, and to widen participation and lifelong learning. Some governments utilise private HEIs to address national demands, for instance, Poland, Hungary, Spain and Japan. Springboard has presented the successful precedent of providing thousands of students from all sections of society with Quality and Qualifications Ireland, QQI, validated qualifications in skills areas to underpin Ireland’s economic development. HECA providers have the physical and teaching capacity to ramp up provision to 57,000 places, if need be, on their programmes that are validated. Given the skills shortage imperative, obstacles blocking the inclusion of private HEI representation at the National Skills Council and its regional skills fora should be removed.

In my view, random selection is an obscenity and should be eliminated. That could be done by increasing places available to meet the demand for high points courses at the margin where random selection is necessitated. Alternatively, randomly excluded students should be fully funded to study abroad and, in the long term, alternative private and public pathways should be funded to rid us of this obscenity.

Alternative pathways need to be supported by Government funding. In certain instances this is happening, for example, with apprenticeships and traineeships, foundation courses, community further education and higher education colleges, but these should include transition to private institutions and would be more effective if that were the case. Part-time, blended and online methods of attaining qualifications need to be considered. Coherent stacking of micro-credentials should be considered. Academic thinking is open to that.

The national forum for teaching and learning, effectively funding for continuing professional development, CPD, to support staff should be extended to private institutions. We need to greatly expand a new generation of apprenticeships. We need most of all to change the attitudes to apprenticeship funding. We need a promotional campaign highlighting the career achievement of top-level people who started life as apprentices. For instance, I do not think many people present will be aware that Peter Drucker started his life as an apprentice. There are many such examples. I will give an outstanding example in Ireland of a person who is alive and working - Ralf Brandstätter, the CEO of Volkswagen cars, who started life as an apprentice. There are many more who started out as apprentices. We need to get that message out. Parents need to recognise an apprenticeship is a very effective way of starting one's career.

On research and investment, we think the obstacles to private colleges being involved in research tenders should be removed. I acknowledge we need to do more research.

We recognise that the question of loans is politically toxic but the reality is that families and students are increasingly relying on expensive commercial loans to attend higher education. We propose a not-for-profit student loan company should be established to support students attending HEIs. This would not be a substitute for fees and current supports but would be additional in assisting access for people who are already very hard-pressed.

The European fund for strategic investment skills and education aims to offer financing options through financial intermediaries to be made available to students who meet its criteria. We think this is a distinct possibility and should the committee favour this, we would be happy to develop the proposal further. It is an opportunity for students to get funding. It is important that it would be done through a not-for-profit means. It should not be used to increased the profit of financial institutions.

I wish to briefly refer to funding of protection for learners. At present, learners in private HEIs have the benefit of a learner protection scheme. Academic bonding is a scheme that enables a student to transfer to another institution and complete his or her study in that other institution in the event of discontinuance of the course where the student started it originally. HECA is concerned the members' predecessor committee was informed that “academic bonding has not been achievable by providers” when discussed in the 2019 Act. At that time, the HECA academic bonding scheme was in operation in its third academic year. It provides support for students through an arrangement whereby each college is backed by two protecting colleges in order that students can transfer to one of two protecting colleges. Furthermore, there is a system in operation whereby the colleges are required to prepared action plans to cover the contingency of discontinuance. All of this is backed by a fund that now amounts to €4 million. The system is working. If it is not broke, why fix it? There is a proposal for an Irish scheme. I stress this arrangement is overseen by an oversight committee chaired by an eminent past president of a public sector HEI. Cathaoirleach agus baill an choiste, go raibh mile maith agaibh.