Results 9,841-9,860 of 46,346 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Nursing Education (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1303 and 1305 together. The data requested by the Deputy is not held by the Department nor the agencies under its remit. Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are governed by the Universities Act 1997, the Institutes of Technologies Acts 1992 to 2006 and the Technological Universities Act 2018. Within the meaning of these Acts, HEIs are autonomous with regard...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: International Students (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The Higher Education Authority (HEA) is responsible for collecting, analysing and disseminating student and graduate enrolment data from all HEA-funded higher education institutions. Details of student enrolment data, including in relation to domicile, is available on the HEA website: Please note the HEA does not collect data from private colleges.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education Policy (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The programmes which are developed in institutions across the further and higher education sector in Ireland are developed independently, consistent with principles which respect the academic independence of those institutions. My Department has no role in that context.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: International Students (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: Following the publication of COVID-19 Resilience and Recovery: The Path Ahead and in keeping with the Government’s objective of moving to a return to safe onsite provision in higher and further education, extensive planning has been undertaken by the sectoral stakeholders of the Covid-19 Working Group for the English language education (ELE) sector to prepare for the safe resumption of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The principal support provided by my Department in financial terms is the Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the 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 scheme is demand led and as...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The application process for 2021-22 is still open therefore, it is not possible at this juncture to provide the data requested by the Deputy. However, I can confirm that as of July 18, SUSI had received just over 81,300 applications and assessed just over 59,700 with just over 51,900 qualifying for grant support.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1310 and 1311 together. The decision on eligibility for student grant assistance is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralised student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine. If an individual applicant considers that she/he has been unjustly refused a student grant, or that the rate of grant awarded is not the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Strategies (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: Horizon Europe – the new European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (2021-2027) – aims to increase the EU’s research and innovation impact by combining European partnership co-investment with additional private and public sector funds in areas where the scope and scale of the research and innovation resources can help achieve the EU's Horizon Europe...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet an identified need for applicants who choose to engage...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: As part of a comprehensive customer service and communications strategy provided by Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI), to ensure that all necessary avenues are open to applicants to receive the information they need, a dedicated email and phone line service is provided by SUSI for Oireachtas members. This was established to meet an identified need for applicants who choose to engage...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Grant Payments (27 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: The student grant scheme, administered by SUSI, provides grants to students who meet the prescribed conditions of funding, including those relating to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. SUSI received over 100,000 applications for academic year 2020/21 representing an increase in applications when compared to 2019/20. There have been no delays in the processing of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy and acknowledge, regarding the extra funding, the work and the survey she did, which was helpful and informed much of the discussion. On the accommodation legislation, I welcome the change of legislation. It had cross-party support in the Oireachtas. It does two things. It limits the amount of upfront deposit a renter can be asked for to no more than one month's rent...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I am saying we all worked at speed across the parties in both Houses of the Oireachtas to pass this legislation to provide protections for students and I would take a grim view of anybody not rigidly applying both the letter and the spirit of the legislation. Many of the issues students have highlighted to me in relation to being asked for many months of rent upfront were from college-owned...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank the Deputy for her constructive engagement on this. We discussed it on the floor of the Dáil on many occasions. I will give the Deputy the latest statistics from SUSI. As of 11 July, more than 80,000 applications have been received from new and returning students, of which 56,000 have been processed and 49,500 of those have been deemed eligible for support. In the last...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: It was great to be back in the west and able to meet people in real life rather than on Zoom. I thank Senator Dolan for her work in highlighting the SUSI review. I can tell her that we received over 250 submissions via the public consultation process from a wide range of organisations, many of which work with students, parents, vulnerable people and people at risk of poverty, with ideas...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I was delighted to be in Galway last week with the Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, for the launch of the active consent programme. We have managed to fund Ireland's first ever digital hub - effectively a website - with resources for staff and students in consent. Sexual harassment is not confined to third level education but third level education should be leading in this area. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I thank Deputy Ó Ríordáin for his questions and kind comments about the work of the Department. I thank all of the officials who are trying to build a new Department. While it is not quite being built from scratch, it is taking many functions from the Department of Education and the previous Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation, and loading them together at a...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: First, I thank Senator O'Reilly very much for making the point better than I did that we are not talking about a reopening of third level because, of course, third level never closed in terms of the delivery of the service. I say that out of respect to the staff and students, who worked in the most extraordinarily difficult circumstances to keep the show on the road. People managed to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I have read it. I had the honour of saying a few words at the launch of the report yesterday. It is a really good piece of work. I thank Ms Niamh O'Reilly, who heads up AONTAS, and all of the team. They are members of our Covid steering group which meets regularly, generally on a Friday. That is very important, as they are often the voice of community education. We have pretty good...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Skills: Reopening of Further and Higher Education Institutions: Discussion (22 Jul 2021)

Simon Harris: I do indeed. I will ask the institutions to show that flexibility. I often think of the soon-to-be second year college students who physically left a school building in March 2020. In many cases, they have not been physically inside an educational setting since then. It would be unusual not to need a period to re-adapt. Anyone would need that after such a level of disruption. I have...