Mr. Martin Murray:

All the statistics are provided in good faith but subject to verification. My understanding is that individual higher education institutions can be focused and strategic, particularly in areas such as teacher training. Indonesia is critical in this regard because only 28% of university lecturers there have a PhD qualification and there are significant, fully funded government scholarships for the remaining academic staff to gain such a qualification whereby they go abroad to do a PhD and then return. What makes them particularly important is that when they go back, they are in a position of influence because they are lecturing students in higher education institutions. Such targeted higher education students are important for Ireland and there is a multiplier effect when they go back.

The approach varies among individual universities. Many seem to being doing their own thing. I stand to be corrected but I recall prior to the financial crisis that a fund was put together amounting to €4 million to create an overarching body such as that mentioned by the Chairman, which would provide oversight in order that universities would not duplicate courses or the selling of the courses abroad to the same people but that was scrapped when the crisis hit. We had a meeting where the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade brought back all the Irish ambassadors from Asia. We were in the room and one ambassador said quite directly in a frustrating manner that he had just been informed by the rector of the most prestigious university in his capital city in Asia that it would refuse to accept any more higher education delegations from Ireland because within the previous six months, four delegations had been there to sell the same courses. The rector had freed up senior management time and he said he could not afford to do that because his staff were too busy. He said to the Irish ambassador that if universities had niche, best-in-class courses, he would be happy to meet their delegations but they would not meet similar universities selling the same courses because it was a waste of time.