Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I accept that some good things are happening. Universities have two roles and these relate to the areas of research and training. There has been a great deal of healthy focus, including on the part of the Minister of State, on research. In that context, the Industrial Development (Science Foundation Ireland) (Amendment) Bill 2012 is currently before the Houses. The same level of funding and focus is not being devoted to teaching. There have been some very welcome developments on the research side, which focus on outcomes, links to commercial interests etc. The developments on the teaching side when compared to those in the area of research are quite small in nature.

There are some promising initiatives in place but some of the major challenges seem to arise on foot of working practices. I accept that pedagogy can improve matters. However, it is fairly well recognised in many - perhaps not all - of the universities that being an excellent teacher does not lead to one being promoted. It is writing and publishing papers which gets one promoted. I understand UCD has introduced a dual-track system in this regard. An important step along this path is that which involves measuring outcomes and arriving at an agreed and rigorous dataset in that regard. Such a dataset will allow one to identify the universities, departments thereof, individual professors etc., that are doing well. Are there plans to create such a dataset in order that universities and other third level institutions might begin to learn from each other? I refer to the adoption of a systematic approach across the third level sector.

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