Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The guarantee is there. It is not a guarantee from a Minister but it is in black and white in the Bill. I have also read it into the record on two occasions.

I thank Deputy Burton for bringing up the issue of doctoral education. We have a national framework for doctoral education which was launched in 2015. The framework articulates nine principles for doctoral education in Ireland and has been endorsed by the Irish higher education institutions, as well as the main research funders. Its aims are to facilitate consistent excellence in the quality of postgraduate education, to enable and encourage higher education institutions to work more closely in the delivery of an improved learner experience and outcome, and to maximise the employability of doctoral graduates across a broad range of employment sectors by ensuring that the acquisition of discipline-specific knowledge is complemented by the development of transferable skills to underpin the international standing of the Irish doctoral award. In 2016, QQI commissioned an expert panel to report on quality assurance for research programmes. We want the best for our doctoral programmes and we have set up two national negotiation forums with unions where issues can be raised. We have strengthened postgraduate study for our doctoral students.

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