Mr. Ian McKenna:

The Department is grateful to take this opportunity to update the Chair and members on the progress that has been made on the implementation of the recommendations outlined of this committee's report on North-South mobility in tertiary education.

As members will be aware, in October 2022, the Minister provided a detailed response to these important recommendations. A further update was provided in February 2023. Drawing on the Minister's opening statement in February of 2022, a detailed response across each of the recommendations has been sent to the clerk to the committee and I trust that this has been made available to members.

The Department would like to highlight some specific issues across three key areas, namely, A-level equivalencies; bilateral engagement between the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, IGC, here and the Northern Ireland Schools and Colleges Careers Association, NISCCA; and the launch of the research co-centres.

While the question of admissions policy is a matter for each university, as an autonomous institution, the Minister has been anxious for some time that progress be made on the question of equivalency regarding A-levels. In mid-2023, this question was taken forward by Universities Ireland, which is a representative body of presidents and vice-chancellors on the island of Ireland. A working group, chaired by Professor Pól Ó Dochartaigh, deputy president and registrar of the University of Galway, undertook a detailed review of these issues and made a series of recommendations for adoption by the academic council of each university. The principal recommendation has effectively removed the need for four A-levels to achieve 600 CAO points. This will allow an A-level student, with three A-levels and an advanced subsidiary, AS, qualification, or an extended project, to achieve a maximum of 600 points. The working group recommendations have been adopted for implementation for the 2024 intake by a number of universities while the remaining institutions will implement this for the 2025 cohort. This will be monitored over the next few years, and it will be interesting to see the impact of this adjustment on the number of A-level students coming to Irish universities.

This leads to the next which the Department would like to address. It is of course important that this is communicated very clearly to students in Northern Ireland. Following its presentation to the committee in February 2023, the Department engaged with the Institute of Guidance Counsellors in Ireland with a view to establishing the nature of bilateral engagement with its counterpart in Northern Ireland. While the president of the IGC was confident that Irish schools along the Border were very au fait with the options in universities like Ulster University and Queen's University, he acknowledged that the connections could be improved.

The most recent report that we have got from the ICG is very welcome. It gives an indication of the increased engagement on a North-South basis. The Minister will welcome the proposal to establish a joint working group of the NISCCA, which is the Northern Ireland equivalent in career guidance, and IGC members who will meet regularly and pass on their deliberations across both executives, developing appropriate material for sharing with leaving certificate and A-level students.

Finally, the Department would like to highlight the recent establishment of the research co-centres. As members will be aware, following the British-Irish Intergovernmental Council last November, the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Deputy Harris, and the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Ms Michelle Donelan, and the Permanent Secretary of Northern Ireland's Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, Ms Katrina Godfrey, announced a €70 million project in joint funding to create two research centres. The funding will bring together academics, industry and policymakers across Irish Government, UK Government and Northern Ireland Government Departments to collaborate on common challenges such as food sustainability and climate change. All in all 132 researchers will work together on a North-South and an east-west basis. Both of the co-centres will be funded over six years, with up to €40 million coming from the Science Foundation Ireland and the balance coming from the UK and Northern Ireland. This complements the existing North-South research programme but the inclusion of research institutions from England will bring added research expertise to the co-centres.

These exemplars of North-South collaboration reflect not just a commitment by the Minister to act on the recommendations of the committee's report but they also speak to one of the pillars in Global Citizens 2030, Ireland's international and talent and innovation strategy. The strategy is built around six pillars but pillar 5 is of most relevance. It aims to ensure that education and research contribute to mutual understanding and seamless collaboration across the tertiary system, with purposeful collaborations in education and research underpinning enhanced co-operation on a North-South and east-west basis. The support of this committee to realise this objective is also very important.

The Department appreciates the opportunity to address the committee and I look forward to our discussions.