Results 10,701-10,720 of 46,456 for speaker:Simon Harris

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: My Department is working to deliver on its mission to develop further and higher education to support people in reaching their full potential. We published our Statement of Strategy for the 2021-2023 period on March 8. It contains six strategic goals including a goal on inclusion which seeks to “support learning for all, recognising the needs of vulnerable learners and the most...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The HEA publishes figures annually on the non-progression rate among students - i.e. the proportion of new entrants enrolled in first year who do not progress to second year. Non-progression data from 2010 up to the most recent year available (2016) is available in the attached table. The year given refers to the year in which the student entered third level so, for...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The most recent figures which are available, are for the 2019/2020 academic year, and confirm that 1,588 Northern Ireland-domiciled students attended Higher Education Institutions in the State, while 2,090 students from the State attended Northern Ireland Higher Education Institutions.

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Technological Universities (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The Government has a very clear ambition to expand and consolidate higher education facilities, to boost economic development across the country and to attract research funding. Technological Universities are central to delivering on this.  MTU will be a driver of regional development, and it will help to make higher education more accessible. Above all else it will provide more...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Transport (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: As the Deputy may be aware, my Department was established in July 2020. I can confirm to the Deputy that my Department does not lease or own any vehicles. The information in respect of state bodies within the scope of the Deputy’s question is not held by my  Department. Contact details for these bodies are set out in the attached document should the Deputy wish to contact them...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: 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 my Department have a role in the...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Fees (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: 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 bodies and are responsible for their own day-to-day management and operational affairs including dealing with policy and procedure in relation to fee collection or fee...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Education and Training Provision (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: I propose to take Questions Nos. 1150 and 1151 together. The Human Capital Initiative (HCI) programme was announced as part of Budget 2019, with a primary objective of underpinning the provision of additional capacity across the Higher Education Sector to meet priority skill needs for enterprise. It aims to increase capacity in higher education in focused programmes designed to meet priority...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Education (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: There is no specific disability category for data collection purposes  for learners with dyslexia in either higher or further education. Data is not specifically collected on the number of students with dyslexia in further education but it falls under the broader category of 'Learning, Remembering and Concentrating”. 4,300 students in Further...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Universal Support Ireland (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Under the Student Grant Scheme, grant assistance is available to eligible students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the terms and conditions of funding, including those relating to residency, means, nationality and previous academic attainment.  The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for SUSI to determine....

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Project Ireland 2040 (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Funding of €2.08m was approved to support an upgrade of the roof and other building fabric at the GMIT Castlebar campus in 2018. This recognised the health and safety challenge posed by the roof condition and responded to a recommendation of the Working Group on Developing a Sustainable Plan for the Mayo Campus of Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology.  ...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Regional Development (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: Allocation for the Regional Skills Fora subhead is as follows:  2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 Allocation € 1,100,000 1,000,000 1,236,000 1,636,000 1,767,000 This provision covers the cost of salary and associated costs of the network of nine Regional Skills Fora Managers,...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: National Training Fund (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: National Training Fund (NTF) expenditure includes an allocation for enterprise focused higher education provision. The purpose of the NTF Enterprise Focused provision is to provide skills-related recurrent funding in support of higher education programmes that are particularly oriented towards meeting labour market needs. The full and partial NTF funding of specific programmes, previously...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Third Level Admissions (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: In order to help mitigate the impact of the changes to the grading system in 2020 I announced the creation of an additional 2,225 places on high-demand courses in Higher Education Institutions. These places were provided in order ensure that as many students as possible could be accommodated on a course of their choice, given the unprecedented circumstances they faced. The subject areas...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Student Support Schemes (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: While Ireland is on Level 5 of the Plan for Living with COVID all further and higher education institutions will deliver the majority of their classes online with only essential activities held on site.  While it is appreciated that the COVID impacts are disappointing for students who had hoped to have as much time on campus as possible, these measures are necessary to support halting...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Expenditure (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 presented unique challenges across the Higher Education and Further Education Sectors. Early on, a review was conducted by my Department in consultation with the Higher Education Authority and Institutes, Further Education and Training stakeholders to ascertain the impact of the crisis on the sectors. Following on from this review €216m of...

Written Answers — Department of Education and Skills: Departmental Administrative Arrangements (24 Mar 2021)

Simon Harris: The only applicable fines, charges or bills issued directly by the Department relate to Freedom of Information costs which can be paid via a cheque or bank transfer. In addition, public sector employees paid by the Department through the National Shared Service Office have the option to have 3rd party charges deducted from their pay and forwarded onto 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: 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.