Results 3,801-3,820 of 45,495 for speaker:Simon Harris

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Anything within reason.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy and join him in acknowledging the success of the SETU. I also acknowledge that he has been an enormous supporter of the university. We have gone from no university in the south east to one. We have moved from an aspiration in respect of the Waterford Crystal site to having secured it, with plans coming on for student accommodation. Whatever happens beyond this point,...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I am conscious that the first job was to establish the TUs, and a great amount of work has been done by an incredible number of people to get to this point. We are now going through the process of assessing projects that are under way and may require, for example, an extension. The HEA and my own Department are considering what other funding avenues may be available. I am thinking in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: We in the Department are in the same place as the Deputy on the evidence of how he has presented the situation. We need to see a step change in research capacity in the TUs if they are to achieve their full mission. That will certainly require professors. It will also require an opportunity for those contract discussions to take place. The Deputy will be aware that I brought the OECD...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: There is a vote in the Dáil Chamber.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I fully agree with the Cathaoirleach and Deputy Ó Cathasaigh on this. We need to get to a point where we can have professors appointed in our TUs and offer academic contracts that are fit for purpose and reflective of the mission of the technological university. We brought the OECD report to Cabinet in December and published it then. It outlines where Ireland is at and gives...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Yes, we are liaising very closely. My officials met them as recently as last week and I will meet all the TU presidents and chairpersons to discuss a wide agenda tomorrow morning. I have no doubt this issue will come up.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Being honest, there is a common view here among everybody. We need to advance that to a point where we can have success in the conversations we need to have with the Department of Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform and others.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I completely agree. As the Cathaoirleach knows better than most, we have been trying to bring university education into the regions. Even though we have done that, there will still be certain courses for which people will need to go to certain universities to access. I am very conscious of the autonomy of the universities and obviously they decide what courses they provide. They have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I want to just acknowledge that TU Dublin's master plan has identified the need for student accommodation. Tomorrow, I will announce the appointment of expertise to work with the TUs to advance their plans. Waterford is a little different and I will come back to it presently. In general, the TUs have never been able to build accommodation before. As a result, we cannot expect them to have...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Young people are doing their leaving certificate right now and many of them will want to vets. In September, many of them will pack their bags and head to other countries in the European Union to become vets. There is always a degree of this but it is completely disproportionate in Ireland. A total of 65% of new entrants to the Veterinary Council register last year were educated abroad....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: The Cathaoirleach is entirely right. We have all been making this point for a long time and, in fairness, there are many believers in this room. It is always about the region. We all wear our county jerseys from time to time and that it is important. We are elected to Dáil Éireann to represent our constituents. The regional impact of these technological universities is where...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I have not been on South East Radio with Alan Corcoran in a while so I ask the Cathaoirleach to send him my best. He always asks me that question also, and the Cathaoirleach can tell him directly from me that we remain absolutely committed. The Cathaoirleach reminds me regularly of the importance of delivering for the site. The State is not in the business of purchasing assets to leave...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Teacher education policy is a matter for my ministerial colleague, Deputy Foley, in the first instance but there is an openness from her and the Department of Education to engage on this issue. As far as I am aware, that Department's policy is one of developing centres of excellence in teacher education, but perhaps that can be advanced through technological universities working with...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for raising it. This is an area where I am determined to make progress. Our country's future economic and social well-being is dependent on human capital. We spend a great deal of time in the Oireachtas speaking about capital, but we do not speak enough about it in the context of human capital. An example of what we can do in this regard is to invest in research...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Key Issues in Higher and Further Education: Discussion (21 Jun 2023)

Simon Harris: Go raibh maith agat Senator Dolan. There are a couple of things there. The Senator is right on resilience. I say in a complimentary fashion about the Department of Education rather than anything else but a lot of the skills we learn, we learn them before we arrive in third level, in terms of how we are prepared for third level education and to pick a discipline, to focus and the likes. I...