Dr. Catherine Day:

Thank you, Chair, for inviting me to make a presentation here today. You referred to my previous role and I wish to make that my starting point. When I was Secretary General of the European Commission I was deeply involved in the Europe 2020 strategy, which is the EU's strategy for growth and jobs. I was also very involved in ensuring that third level education was one of the quantified targets of the strategy for the EU. The point of making it a quantified target was to put the right emphasis on the hugely important role of higher education in ensuring Europe's future well-being and prosperity. To ensure the European social model can continue to deliver on the high aspirations we have for citizens, it is necessary to invest more in the higher education system.

Coming from my previous background I naturally think it is very important that we set future Irish higher education policy in a broader European context. That context has been given greater relevance by the recent Brexit development.

I am here today as chair of the governing body of UCC. It has been interesting for me to have the opportunity to see how a key European policy is implemented on the ground. I have also seen the real difficulties of trying to deliver an internationally high standard of university education with restrained resources.

In the past ten years UCC has seen its undergraduate numbers grow from just over 11,500 to 13,000 and postgraduate students have increased to just over 4,000. At the same time the increases have happened State funding has fallen by 38%. On the one hand, the number of students has grown but, on the other hand, there is less money. Faced with such a difficult situation, UCC supported by its governing body has practiced prudent budget management and not built up a significant deficit in difficult years. This has been achieved at a cost, as previous speakers have said. There has been limited investment in new facilities and increased staff-student ratios. It is true that we can manage cutbacks and a lack of investment from one year to the next but we all know that postponing much needed investment just pushes the problem down the road and makes it bigger in the medium-term. It is critically important to remember that such a measure affects the quality of education delivered.

In common with other universities, UCC has seen its staff-student ratio increase dramatically from 1:21 in 2006 to 1:26 plus today. As we have just heard, the OECD average is 1:14 so the UCC is far out of line with the average OECD ratio. An increased staff-student ratio has had a dramatic impact on the quality of education because it means less individual attention for students, reduced practical experience in laboratories and a reduced amount of tutorials or abolishing them completely. An increased ratio has lots of impacts on vital aspects of a university education. This is one of the reasons why Irish universities have fallen down the international ranking tables. Reduced funding also means increased stress for staff, which has tempted some of them to move abroad. Reduced funding has also reduced the capacity of UCC to attract the best academics in their fields of expertise.

Ireland rightly prides itself on traditionally putting a high value on education. According to a recent report from the European University Association’s public funding observatory, Ireland together with a few other countries like Croatia, Greece, Spain, Serbia and the UK have been classified as "systems in danger" because our funding to universities has decreased while student numbers have grown.

In common with the other speakers this morning, UCC views the Cassells report as setting out a compelling case for investing in national ambition through better funding for higher education. UCC thinks that the report rightly puts an emphasis on investment, quality and verification. The recent submission by the Irish Universities Association to this committee endorsed the Cassells report and its findings. In my view, the IUA made a very reasoned case for increased investment in this sector. Investment is at the heart of this issue. We can go on as we are, failing to invest enough in our universities and for some time we will still have a somewhat functioning university sector. However, it will not be a university sector that can deliver on individual or collective expectations as a society. All of this matters. It matters to our competitiveness, our influence in the world and our ability to satisfy the aspirations of our citizens.

It has sometimes been said that funding for higher education is an elite issue but I disagree. Just over half of our younger population have third level education. Most parents work very hard to give their children the best possible education and today that means third level for the majority. Therefore, such education has become the norm and a necessity if we are to maintain our standard of living into the future. Investing in human capital is even more important than investing in physical infrastructure, particularly for a small open economy like ours that relies on trade and inward investment for its well-being.

There have been many calls for public funding and almost everyone can make a special case for increased funding. I am not arguing that universities should be put ahead of other deserving priorities. Instead, I wish to argue strongly that higher education is among the top priorities.

In my view three things must be done at the same time. First, Ireland needs unequivocally to go for high standards in third level education. We should not be satisfied to be in the lower half of EU members states in this sector. Going for excellence in our university sector should be a public goal and the means to deliver same should follow.

Second, public investment in the university sector needs to be put on a sound footing. Therefore, current and capital expenditure must grow to improve quality and meet demographic demand. I will not go into all of the figures and data because they are available in excellent reports that have been published recently. The argument has been extremely well made. In my view, the Brexit context adds urgency to the need for funding and investment decisions now because they take time to come through in terms of results.

Third, universities need to diversify their sources of funding and they are all doing so. There has been a tendency during the financial crisis to micro manage the sector using the threat of reduced funding to obtain compliance. This approach has had a stifling effect and reduced the autonomy of universities. I argue that as long as universities do not create new liabilities for the public purse then they should be given the flexibility and agility to generate funding and deploy resources to best effect, subject to supervision by their governing authorities. Governance in the universities sectors has greatly improved in recent years. A climate of greater trust between officialdom and the universities is needed to ensure that the universities deliver a top quality outcome in terms of well qualified students and high quality research.

Like the previous speakers, I support the conclusions of the Cassells report and the submission made by the Irish Universities Association. Like them, I stress the urgency of taking clear decisions on future funding that provides adequately for sufficient investment to deliver high quality. The universities have the capacity to deliver the kind of higher education system that this country needs going into the future and that they are eager to do so. Unfortunately, they cannot do so without a significantly increased and sustainable future funding model.