Professor Gerry McKenna:

I thank the Chairman and members for inviting us to the meeting. We are delighted to be here. I am senior vice president of the Royal Irish Academy, for which the whole area of higher and tertiary education and research is a major interest and priority.

Members will have received our written submission.

The academy established a task force on higher education in 2020. It comprised 37 individuals and received more than 100 submissions dealing with the future of higher education across the island. Submissions included statements and documents on vision, the future landscape for higher education, equality, diversity and inclusion; research and innovation, and, most important, regions and place. We were particularly concerned about the excess concentration of higher education places in Northern Ireland, particularly Belfast, relative to the rest of that part of Ireland. We were also concerned about the deficiency regarding the north west, which we define as the greater north west.

We welcome the inquiry into student enrolment and mobility. We made a detailed submission to the committee in December 2021. We had a substantive meeting with Deputy Conway-Walsh subsequent to that, and we have had correspondence in various forms subsequent to that.

I hope the benefits of North–South student mobility do not have to be stated again but clearly they are of great importance to the economic, social and cultural development of the island. With regard to peace and reconciliation, these benefits comprise a major supporting factor. Student flows from the North to the South and the South to the North should be relatively non-controversial. We have noted that the flows have diminished somewhat over recent years in both directions. The numbers have been static or going downward, despite the fact that there have been major flows from Northern Ireland to Great Britain. These flows are effectively the equivalent of another university, in fact. There are various reasons for that. The cap on student numbers in Northern Ireland is a major factor but it is not the only one.

We have outlined in our submission the issue of the equivalency of A-level and leaving certificate qualifications. The timing of CAO offers versus those of the UK's University and Colleges Admissions Service, UKAS, and the extent to which students value the first offer they receive must be borne in mind. There is a relative lack of information from, and effort by, the southern institutions in respect of attracting Northern Ireland students. That is somewhat understandable given that they are oversubscribed in many respects and also given the lure of overseas students, perhaps. However, there is not a great emphasis in Northern Ireland schools on the attraction of studying in the Republic. We have made some points about open days and encouraging developments in that way. There are also issues to do with accommodation in the South. These issues are clearly a deterrent for people moving from the North to the South.

Another point we have mentioned in our report on regions and place concerns the limited co-operation and collaboration on further education between the North and South, particularly in the Border region, where there is a genuine opportunity to do things together. It has not been fully activated.

We also made a point about health courses. It is more about a South–North flow than a North–South flow. The fact is that previously a quite substantial number of southern students used to go to Northern Ireland to study a wide range of health-related courses, including biomedical science, nutrition, dietetics and physiotherapy, and then would go back to the Republic to work. However, under the regulatory arrangements that have developed in the South under CORU, which recognises courses and programmes, while it is possible for a student who has studied outside the Republic to be registered there subsequently, it is a cumbersome process and requires a lot of effort. That is a major deterrent to students from the South who wish to study in the North, even though the programmes are essentially similar and some of them were originally developed in the North. It is a huge barrier to student flows from the South to the North and, of course, it diminishes employment prospects in an area where there is a shortage of people.

We have also made the point that we think the whole issue of North-South student flow is very important. We have mentioned particularly the north west. We made the point that there really ought to be some effort in respect of PEACEPLUS to develop activities that would support that, particularly in the north-west region. We look forward also to the committee's subsequent work on postgraduate studies. We would hope that everybody would see the flow of students, North-South and South-North, as a priority which can only be of benefit to the island as a whole.