Results 4,561-4,580 of 10,120 for speaker:Jim O'Callaghan

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank the witnesses for coming before the committee, and particularly Ms Cousins for coming down. I am conscious that it is difficult for civil servants in circumstances where they do not have ministerial direction at present. Ms Cousins mentioned that in the final paragraph of her statement and we are very aware of that. I want to start by asking her some questions. In respect of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Did Northern Ireland previously have many students registering from the EU, outside of the UK and Ireland?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Okay, good. Is that postgraduate or undergraduate?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: I think there has been some decline in Britain recently as a result of Brexit, in that foreign students are not coming. Ms Cousins does not think that is affecting Northern Ireland.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: On the topic of the CAO system and the UCAS system that operates in Northern Ireland at present, under the CAO system students do not get offered a place until after they have received their results, whereas in Northern Ireland and the UK, they get a conditional acceptance in advance of their results. Is that correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Is that due to the fact that in the last two or three years the leaving certificate results have been issued very late?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Pre-Covid, was it as much of an issue?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: In his opening statement, Mr. McKenna mentioned that Medicine was one of the areas that the Department was looking at to see whether the demand for the course that exists in Ireland could be met by spaces in Northern Ireland. Why is it that students in Northern Ireland are not taking up places and there is not the same demand for Medicine as there is here?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Funding.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Is there in some way less demand in Northern Ireland from students to do Medicine than there is here?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Dr. Patterson mentioned the Erasmus scheme in her opening statement. Am I correct in saying that students in Northern Ireland will not be able to avail of an Erasmus scheme after 2023?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Mr. Brownlee mentioned that many students in Ireland go on to do further education in Northern Ireland, particularly in popular courses such as nursing and social care. Do we know what happens to them after they get their degrees in Northern Ireland? Do many come back here? Does Mr. Brownlee have any data on that?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: The qualifications to work are similar in both jurisdictions.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: I thank Mr. Jones and Mr. Kelly for coming before the committee and for their very interesting contributions in their opening statements. Mr. Jones raised some very important points in the opening part of his statement which referenced the work of Fr. Micheál McGréil. We do not emphasise this enough or maybe not sufficient attention is given to it and I am not trying to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: If one looks at some educational institutions, at the time of partition, the education of lawyers changed, obviously, because there were two different jurisdictions from then on. It seems to have happened in other educational disciplines as well that the links between the educational establishments seemed to be completely eradicated after partition. I am not trying to put blame on...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Perhaps those barriers were created for a specific political purpose. Many years ago, people wanted to see barriers up. As we know, when barriers are installed it is sometimes much more difficult to remove them. Are the witnesses' colleagues in third level institutions in Northern Ireland on strike at present?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: Part of the reason for that is the terms of employment and pay. Mr. Jones mentioned the precarity of employment in Ireland. A couple of years ago we had a person before this committee who was a PhD student lecturing in a third level institution in Ireland. We were shocked at what he was being paid for lecturing. Have things improved in any way?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: North-South Enrolment in Tertiary Education: Discussion (14 Feb 2023)

Jim O'Callaghan: It is a perfectly legitimate argument to say we need to fund third level education much more in order that people do not remain in precarity of employment. Are the universities using PhD students too much and not paying them enough or is it unfair to criticise the third level institutions?