Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 22 March 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills

Future Funding of Higher Education: Discussion (Resumed)

Professor Mark Rogers:

If I may add to that, I fully agree that access to the university sector nationally has been extraordinarily well done but the issue is about participation while students are in college and their getting the real benefit from that. I refer to that as inclusion. The SUSI grant scheme is the mechanism by which that should be properly resourced. The levels of funding, access to that funding and the levels below which parents' salaries must be in order to gain access to what is inadequate funding very much needs to be addressed.