Results 9,801-9,820 of 45,539 for speaker:Simon Harris

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the committee for the opportunity to speak to it as part of its consideration of the Department’s Revised Estimates. I am accompanied today by the Minister of State, Deputy Niall Collins, who has responsibility for skills and further education and by officials from the Department. I am conscious that I have only five minutes to deliver my opening statement so I will be very...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Conway-Walsh. I will try to take the questions in sequence. The year-on-year movement for higher education is skewed due to the temporary Covid funding in 2020. Of the €216 million allocated to my Department for Covid in 2020, €202 million was allocated to higher education. Removing Covid from the 2020 and the 2021 figures shows that the higher education...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: It tends to be a demand-led scheme. We will seek clarity from SFI that there is nothing further behind that. There is certainly no funding reason as to why there would be a decline in those numbers. We are increasing our level of funding in the research area and we are also increasing funding support to PhD students through stipends.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Yes, we are expecting that later this year. We have already started to engage with the steering group we have in place in respect of the implementation of a national access plan. It is fair to say that when we look at the existing access plan, we see improvements in pretty much all areas. There is an area that we have not seen the improvement we would wish to see, namely, that relating to...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I do not have a specific date for when I am due to receive it but I will seek an update and revert to the Deputy. It is due this year. I do not believe there could be a more timely moment to get this study. We will have the review of the SUSI, the national access plan and the learnings from Covid. We will receive it this year and I will try to find a specific timeframe and I will revert...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Cathasaigh, I was trying to write his questions down. I thank the Deputy for the comments on equality budgeting. We are very happy to provide the committee with any further information it might require. It is an area that is definitely worthy of some additional scrutiny also. On the TU agenda, which the Deputy is very passionate about and especially with regard to...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I would love to see antigen testing used. I will defer to our scientists and medical experts on this, but we have already seen some universities use their own initiative in relation to it. Antigen testing is part of our national toolkit in the fight against Covid. In my view, based on conversations I have had with people more knowledgeable than I am, a college environment could be a very...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: There is no doubt there is a gap in funding. The scale of that remains to be fully determined through engagement my Department is having with the Higher Education Authority, HEA, and the education institutions. We have seen a dramatic reduction in the number of overseas students. From memory, we have seen about 11,000 compared with a figure of up to 35,000 or 40,000 in previous years. It...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I will have to get the Deputy a breakdown on that. I do not have that information available. The Deputy is trying to get under the bonnet to find out whether funded places were not taken up or funding was provided that did not match with places. That is highly unlikely considering we had a very intensive engagement with the universities and institutes of technology to try to match the...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: We do not have that information to hand as this is a discussion of the Revised Estimates but we can certainly get it for the Deputy through the HEA. There is no issue with that. We do not have that level of granularity for a discussion on Vote 45.

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: That is entirely reasonable and correct but there are very clear ways of measuring it. We know, for example, how many people took up a place last year through the CAO in the first round. We saw the increase in the number of students getting level 6 and level 7 offers. There is no doubt whatsoever that more students went to college this year than the previous year. That is a point worth...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: In the context of the Wexford campus, I am pleased to tell the committee that Institute of Technology Carlow has submitted to the Higher Education Authority a significant amount of documentation and information on a site it is pursuing. That process needs to be gone through in a robust manner but I am hopeful for a positive outcome. The Government's commitment is crystal clear in that we...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Deputy Conway-Walsh makes an important point. First, I agree with her that we have an opportunity as a country now to have a conversation about how we make sure we are producing enough graduates to provide the level of public services that our citizens will expect and deserve, post Covid. That is why my Department is working, not just in its own silo but also with other Departments, to...

Select Committee on Education and Skills: Estimates for Public Services 2021
Vote 26 — Education (Revised)
Vote 45 — Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (Revised) (23 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: My apologies but I cannot write as quickly as the Deputy can ask questions and I missed those questions earlier. On teacher training, we are still working with the Department of Education to determine exactly how we are going to address this issue. We have responsibility for third level in its entirety from a policy point of view but obviously the Department of Education has a very active...

Young People and Access to Further and Higher Education: Motion [Private Members] (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I move amendment No. 1: To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following: “notes that: — the establishment of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science is a clear demonstration of the strength of the Government’s commitment to deliver on the far-reaching goals for the entire tertiary...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Covid-19 Pandemic (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Continuity for the most part of further and higher education and research has been maintained throughout the pandemic, despite the suspension of most on-site activities. Over time a blended model of learning has become the dominant mode with varying levels of onsite and online delivery aligned to public health advice and to the needs of different disciplines and different learner cohorts. ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Ministerial Meetings (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The Higher Education Authority and Quality Qualifications Ireland co-chair the National Advisory Forum for Ireland’s Framework for Doctoral Education. Membership of the Forum also comprises representatives of the higher education institutions, research funding organisations, IUA, THEA, student representative, and the Department. It was agreed at the last meeting of the Advisory Forum...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Support Schemes (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Under the Department's student grant scheme, eligible candidates may receive funding provided they are attending an approved course at an approved institution as defined in the scheme. The definition of an approved institution is set out in Section 7 of the Student Support Act 2011 and Regulation 3 of the Student Support Regulations 2020. Private colleges operated on a for-profit basis are...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Support Schemes (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 166 and 168 together. The main support available to assist postgraduate students with the cost of attending higher education is the Student Grant Scheme and the Programme for Government committed to addressing the gap in postgraduate grants. From September 2021 the postgraduate fee grant will increase to €3,500 from €2,000. This increase will...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Unions (11 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The contribution to student unions is normally paid via a student levy collected by the Higher Education Institution. This levy is not covered by the student contribution charge or the SUSI grant. I understand that the TU Dublin Students Union and TU Dublin have now agreed a funding model that will apply for this academic year and the next two academic years.