Mr. Tim Conlon:

In regard to staff to student ratios, student numbers have been increasing and the staffing numbers have not kept pace. We have not seen evidence of a decline in quality but, when the core business is teaching and learning, other matters have to be squeezed. I wonder about issues such as international engagement and some of the other good functions we provide in higher education. Higher education is about research, teaching and learning, but it is also about Ireland's place in the world, our relationships with other nations, our involvement in research programmes and so on. The capacity for some of those issues is being squeezed. Institutions will always protect the student first and foremost - that is what they are there for - but it is the additional functions they would like to provide that they may not have the capacity for.