Results 34,921-34,940 of 46,522 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: It is important we do give them hope. I want the students to know that my aim will be to continue to maximise the number of opportunities that they have when the CAO issues its offers next autumn. It is important that my Department, and the Department of education, reflect on the fact that in many ways there is a bubble effect now because we have had a very unusual year this year, to put it...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Absolutely. I thank the Deputy for contacting me on that. I have made inquiries with GMIT through the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and my Department on this and I will revert to the Deputy in writing on it, today if possible.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I am not sure whether a man from Wicklow can use a phrase like "acting the tool", which I presume is a Cork phrase - it has not reached Greystones anyway - but I take the Deputy's point.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I take the point and I understand it. The point the Deputy makes is correct. My experience of student leaders has been that they rightly do their job to agitate and to advocate but when it comes to public health, they have shown extraordinary leadership. In the conversations I have had to have with those in the Union of Students in Ireland, USI, they have never been anything more than...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: There is an irony in the comment of reminding Government that the news coming from Government cannot always be good. I am certainly familiar with that concept. I assure the Senator that the body of work under way will deliver to this committee an honest economic evaluation of the various options, of which the one he advocates for is one being considered. All of those options will be...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: General Scheme of the Withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the European Union (Consequential Provisions) Bill 2020: Minister with responsibility for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (8 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: No.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 349 and 353 together. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are autonomous and manage their own academic affairs including admissions procedures. The CAO process applications for undergraduate courses on behalf of the HEIs. Decisions on admissions are made by the HEIs who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. As such, neither I nor...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The principal support provided by my Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the Grant Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The decision on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The HEAR and DARE schemes are operated by the Irish Universities Association (IUA) who set the policy criteria for the schemes. Admissions under the schemes are regulated by the higher education institutions themselves. Each institution determines its own admissions policy in relation to the schemes, the number of places they reserve and the allocation of those places. Applications to...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Springboard Programme (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The intention of Springboard+ is to enable the upskilling and re-skilling of the labour force in order to meet the identified skills needs. Eligibility for Springboard+ courses for those in receipt of DEASP benefits is based on their eligibility for those benefits, and is a matter for DEASP. For returners to the workforce or those in employment, in order to be eligible applicants need to be...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: State Examinations (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The CAO is a company established by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to process applications for undergraduate, and some postgraduate, courses on their behalf. Decisions on admissions are made by the HEIs who then instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Therefore application and offer data is held by the CAO and the HEI in question, not by my Department and the data...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Citizenship Applications (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The principal support provided by the Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the Student Grant Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding including those which relate to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Following the conclusion of the review of the code used to generate Calculated Grades, improved Calculated Grades results were transmitted to the CAO on Saturday 3rdOctober. The CAO subsequently identified 485 students who were entitled to an higher preference CAO offer as a result of their improved grades. As of CAO Round 4, which was issued on Thursday 8thOctober, all of these students have...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Health Insurance (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I am aware of the recent decision of the Court of Appeal in relation to health insurance provision for international students. The possession of adequate health insurance is a requirement of our immigration services, in order to protect the exchequer from potentially substantial additional costs for the public health system in managing the health needs of a large number of people from...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Universities are autonomous institutions within the meaning of the Universities Act 1997 and the subject matter in relation to these cases is for the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) to manage. The legal costs in relation to these cases are a matter for NUIG. Under the Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies, the University is obliged to record relevant legal...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Grant Scheme (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The central grant awarding authority Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), a business unit of the City of Dublin ETB, administer the Student Grant Scheme on behalf of my Department. My officials have advised me that the awarding authority has been unable to identify the student in question based on the information provided. Enquiries regarding the status of an application on behalf of an...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Accommodation (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The National Student Accommodation Strategy (NSAS) was published in 2017 and is designed to support the delivery of an increased level of supply of purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) by reducing planning barriers for public and private sector developers of student accommodation and seeking to address financing barriers for our higher education institutions. The aim is to reduce the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Institutions (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: The principal support provided by the Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the Grant Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The decision on...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 365 and 366 together. The Government has provided additional funding in the amount of €168m to support the return of students to further and higher education. For the Education providers under the remit of my Department, the allocation includes funding towards Immediate ICT costs relating to online provision. My Department allocates recurrent...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (13 Oct 2020)

Simon Harris: Higher education institutions (HEIs) are autonomous bodies and as such are entitled to regulate their own academic affairs and administrative processes. Decisions on deferral of college places are a matter for individual institutions, and I have not been made aware of any HEI having a policy of requesting that students with disabilities or underlying health conditions defer their place. As...