Ms Caoimhe Hope:

The standardised design study came out of a recommendation by the residential cost construction study, which was undertaken by the Department of housing. It is one of the four key recommendations of that report, which is being led by our Department in conjunction with the Department of housing. We have a joint steering group which will lead that project. It will be undertaken by us and HEA and there will be expert consultants on that. The first phase of that work is to look at a best practice model from across Europe and across international best practice. This will look at what works out there so that we can understand the flexibility that students require for campus life, as well as what works best in terms of design standards and modern methods of construction. There is also that student well-being factor, which also needs to be taken into account. We are working very closely with colleagues across Government on this, and we are also looking at international best practice.