Dr. Graham Love:

I will make a comment, give a few answers and call on some of my colleagues. We recognise that the challenge the Deputy mentioned about the number of people not being retained in the system represents in a clear way a lost cost to the system. It requires more resources to assist in retaining many of these students. They need additional supports. We have particular access programmes, as I stated, but the funding situation in general and the pressures within the institutions undoubtedly make providing supports to assist these students in progressing through the years challenging. By definition, students from certain backgrounds require greater levels of support. Due to reduced resourcing, many institutions have struggled with this. We have identified such instances. This would be improved by a better funding situation, which we discussed with the report-----