Seanad debates

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

8:00 pm

Photo of Seán HaugheySeán Haughey (Dublin North Central, Fianna Fail)

It is appropriate that there are graduates of Trinity College, Dublin, in the Gallery. As a former graduate myself, I welcome them.

In February 2009 the Minister for Education and Science launched a process to develop a new national strategy for higher education. The process is being led by a high level strategy group under the chairmanship of Dr. Colin Hunt, comprising national and international expertise.

The role of higher education in society has never been more important. It is critical in enabling people to reach their full potential as individuals and as active citizens, and in creating the skilled labour force that Ireland needs to develop an internationally competitive knowledge based economy.

Demand for higher education from school leavers continues to grow and in recent years we have also seen an increase in the number of mature students in higher education. These trends are very welcome in the context of Ireland's objectives for developing the smart economy. However, responding to the needs of a growing and diverse student population while ensuring the system can deliver a high quality learning experience poses a number of challenges for the sector.

The development of a new national strategy for higher education affords a timely opportunity to review the environment for higher education and the challenges and vectors of change that are impacting on the sector. The strategy process is examining how well Ireland's higher education system is performing, how it ranks internationally, how well existing resources are being used and how the system can be reconfigured to best meet the many challenges it faces over the next decade, having regard also to the key role it has to play in contributing to Ireland's economic recovery.

The key objective of this strategy process is to develop a vision and related set of national policy objectives for higher education for the next 20 years with more focused targets for the sector for the next five years. The strategy group has met formally on nine occasions since its establishment last February and has also engaged in extensive consultations with stakeholders and wider interests.

In May 2009 an open call for written submissions was advertised by the strategy group. There was an excellent response from a wide range of stakeholders on all aspects of the higher education system. Over 100 submissions were received from institutions, educational bodies, representatives of the enterprise community and a number of individual personal submissions. These submissions provided valuable input for the group on a range of issues on which the development of the strategy has focused. The submissions are publicly available on the Higher Education Authority website.

Following this public consultation process, a number of independently facilitated discussion forums were held with members of the academic community, third and fourth level students, enterprise and business leaders, second level policy makers and teachers. The material gathered in these fora also provided valuable input to the strategy group's deliberations.

The chairman, Dr. Colin Hunt, and members of the strategy group have also met with institutional leaders from the universities, the institutes of technology, private third level colleges and colleges of education. Bilateral meetings were also held with all the trade unions representing staff in the higher education sector.

The comprehensive consultation process being undertaken by the group is time intensive. In light of the key contribution higher education can make to the future growth of the economy and the well-being of society, however, it is critical that the strategy group be in a position to gauge and reflect the views of a wide range of stakeholders, including those working in the sector, current and potential students for whom the experience of further study will be of life-changing importance, and society in general. It is understood the strategy group is finalising its deliberations and consultations. It is expected that its report will be submitted to the Minister before the summer. I note the Senator's comments in respect of Waterford Institute of Technology and I again thank him for raising this matter.

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