Mr. Frank Jones:

I thank the Chair and committee for having us before them today. STEM education and research are increasingly recognised globally as fundamental to national development and productivity, economic competitiveness and societal wellbeing. The unprecedented economic, pedagogical, cultural and social impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on higher education has led to transformations in education and academic practice in higher education institutions that are yet to be fully realised. STEM developments build on fundamental knowledge and it is now crucial that the research funding base is broad enough to support future innovation. As President Leptin from the European Research Council said in Davos this year, "Modern economies cannot afford to invest exclusively in applied research.”

There can be little doubt that these interacting factors will have a significant impact on higher education in Ireland and the working conditions of academics in the short and long term. At the same time, drivers such as increasing student numbers, widening participation, resource constraints and decreased funding have contributed to higher teaching, research and administrative loads among many academics. Academics are also under increasing pressure to publish high quality research, apply for grants, demonstrate research impact and build external links with industry and community. STEM fields, in particular, are developing at a rapid pace, boosted by technological advances such as big data and new possibilities for automation.

IFUT welcomes thoughtful discussion on ideas for STEM in Irish education and on the future of STEM in higher education, in particular. IFUT recognises that higher education builds on primary and second level education and encourages resourcing and developments in these sectors, including the current NCCA STEM education development group’s work on a new primary science curriculum.

Ireland’s skills gap is long-running and IFUT believes there is a mismatch between the scale of the problem and the solutions offered to date. In this regard, IFUT has welcomed the Oireachtas committee report on future funding, which includes an examination of the needs of those in precarious employment and atypical contracts in higher education. The report states it is imperative that Irish universities ensure their research staff have employment contracts that offer security of tenure, career progression and salary scales commensurate with their qualifications and experience. The fixed-term nature of many academic contracts contributes to the precariousness of academic careers. Continuing to employ people on a succession of short-term contracts is not acceptable.

IFUT recognises the status of women in STEM in higher education and that the sector has made strides toward gender equality, but it still has some way to go. Although coming from a very low base, support from higher education in government has led to strengthened efforts to recruit women academics and researchers in STEM. In Ireland, women continue to be underrepresented in STEM fields and leadership positions. Some 41 per cent of those graduating with a PhD in science, mathematics and computing are women, which is lower than in the EU but nevertheless is within a 60:40 definition of gender balance. However, that disappears when we look at those who are permanent STEM academics, only 35% of whom are women compared with roughly half across the EU. The picture becomes even more unbalanced at full professorial level.

According to the most recent data available from Science Foundation Ireland SFI, in academia only 31% of full-time STEM faculty and 27% of STEM deans and department heads are women. According to the most recent data available for Irish universities, only 42% of the core funded academics in STEMM - the extra "M" refers to medicine - disciplines are female and this figure is worse for ITs at 39%. The same report indicates that only 27% of university professors were female in 2020, representing only a marginal improvement on the 2017-19 figure of 25%, indicating that the scissors phenomena still continues and requires meaningful attention.

IFUT calls for fundamental, long-term, co-ordinated transformational change of the entire system so as to prepare Ireland for the future.

This transformation will require meaningful investment in STEM education, at all levels from primary to third-level, to ensure that all practitioners are supported in providing students in Ireland with the increasingly important data management and technological skills to contribute to Irish and global society. It will also require a significant reduction in the reliance of the higher education sector on precarious staff, which will improve the resilience and diversity of those employed in STEM. Finally, it will require broadening of the research funding base for STEM to ensure that Ireland is positioned to maximise any opportunity, economic and intellectual, that the increasingly fast-moving landscape provides.