Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The seven Irish universities are ranked in the top 2% among the 15,000 universities in the world. That is an extraordinary statistic by any measure. However, the rankings are somewhat self-seeking in that it is possible to construct any matrix of measurement in order to obtain a certain skewed result. For example, one of the strongest countries in Europe for research, including applied research, is Germany, yet the number of German universities which feature in the rankings is relatively small. The purpose of the Shanghai index was to benchmark Chinese research universities against what was being achieved in the United States. Other ranking systems give slightly different results and within these rankings there are good stories and not so good ones. One can almost pick and choose the system which best suits one's needs. Nevertheless, I accept the point the Deputy is making. All other issues being equal, our universities have fallen in the rankings. While UCD has actually moved up a few places, it has been overtaken by other universities for a variety of reasons. Some of it is to do with resources, including pupil-staff ratios and the availability of funding for research. I have spent some time studying the data and there is clearly a lack of consistency in some of the indicators. In some cases, for example, administrative staff and a host of other non-contact staff are included in the pupil-staff ratio, thereby ensuring a more favourable rating for the institution in question.

The current position is that I am awaiting the landscape document from the Higher Education Authority which was commissioned on foot of the report on third level education published in January 2011. There was a request which I did not seek and which was not brought to the notice of the Department for the international experts to give a view as to what the configuration of the entire third level sector should be. This was separate to the recommendations made in Dr. Hunt's report and the initial action taken by the HEA in inviting all of the third level institutions to indicate their view in collaborating and associating with other institutions in their area. I did not want the second part of that report to be published because it would be a distraction from the main exercise on which we had embarked.

I await the report and it will be published in due course, albeit not immediately. I want the institutions in question and the Higher Education Authority to stick to the original mission they set themselves by publishing, probably in February or March 2013, their response to the future landscape configuration of third level education.

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