Dr. Charles Larkin:

On those returning to education, because the modelling we have done looks to a 20-year earning horizon, there is the capability for somebody to take out an income-contingent loan and work under this function but if they are to repay it, they would have to be in a very high earning capacity position after they complete their studies. In general, if one looks at what higher education will look like in the future, the traditional student will be a smaller part of that picture than is the case at present. Many assumptions will have to be rethought about both how the HE system works and the financing of it. That is not something we looked at very extensively. It is something we do need to look at because the demand for higher education in the future will be more about people plugging in and out rather than getting one bloc of education, walking away aged 25 years and never looking at it again. The average student who comes in to third level in 2020 will probably have at least three or four encounters with post-secondary education before they reach retirement age in their mid-70s.