Mr. Andrew Brownlee:

From the perspective of SOLAS and pathways, it is critical. We need to incentivise the links and build on the 5,000 people. It depends on institution-to-institution arrangements. We need to mainstream those and have universal agreements in areas like nursing, technology and even teacher education. We will then see the numbers increasing and pathways forming.

There is also an opportunity for co-development and co-delivery of degree programmes. There is a great example of this in Cavan and Monaghan with the Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, which was Athlone IT, and IT Sligo, which is itself changing into a technological university. There is also the great example of the Ballyfermot College of Further Education working with DCU, where the former starts the delivery of the degree programme locally and students then progress into the university setting. There is the potential to develop this area. In Scotland, it is a tried and tested route. We are not talking about an either-or situation, but about a pathway through the system.