Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

Ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh an Aire ar ais chuig an Seanad. Tá sé iontach maith le teacht anseo agus molaim é as sin. Ba mhaith liom freisin, mar aon leis an Seanadóir Power, fáilte a chur roimh an Bille seo, not least because for the first time it brings the universities into the same orbit as other third level and further education institutions. It is also cost effective in that it amalgamates a number of quality assurance authorities. However, the most important feature of this Bill is that it will ensure that our qualifications and quality assurance system is in line with best practice internationally in that it allows for external peer review and will thus give a high recognition and value internationally to our awards. This is important for a number of reasons, two of which I will outline.

I believe this will improve our local students' chances in the international jobs market. As a member of the board of governors of DKIT for the past eight years, I am keenly aware of the need for strong international value and recognition of our awards. I believe this legislation will assist in that regard. There are a large number of overseas students studying in our third level institutions. There were 96,000 foreign students - not all at third level - studying in Ireland last year, which is a phenomenal number of people. I do not believe people are aware of that. Also, students who come here for summer, autumn or winter courses often return as full-time university or institute students. As well as being prestigious it is very lucrative to the State that we have international recognition of our awards and a strong authority to determine the quality of those awards. It appears to be difficult for prospective students from India and Nepal to gain entry into our third level institutions compared to Chines students. We have a success rate of more than 90% from India and Nepal but even where they have bank statements and have lodged money into the third level institution, the entry level is very low at 29%. I will not judge why the embassy does not grant the visa. I ask the Minister to look at this particularly in the context that an Indian firm, for example, HLC Technologies has announced plans today to create 80 jobs in Dublin during the next three years. We must develop and improve those links with India and Nepal.

The Minister said he would welcome the views of Senators. It is not usual for the awarding authority to be the quality assurance authority in other countries. It is highly unusual where we have delegated authority to the institutions. Could that issue be looked at again? Some colleges might suggest that they make the award like the universities and that the quality assurance authority oversee the quality rigorously. I am not making any further suggestion other than to say that because it is the practice in other countries that the two authorities are separate.

The new authority will also be responsible for the quality of teaching and learning to a certain extent in the colleges and institutions. Senator Bacik referred earlier to the fact that Trinity College has gone down 22 places in the world rankings while I observe that the Technological Institute in Singapore is now in the top ranking. As a former teaching primary school principal I recall remarking 15 years ago on the teaching, curriculum, and implementation of mathematics at primary level in Singapore which was outstanding. Last week we talked about Project Maths last week but the quality of the maths programme in the Singapore primary schools is outstanding. I am sure that has a bearing on what happens further up the line.

As the parent of third level students I suggest that in first year, eight hours lecture time per week is not enough and more should be provided. On a more light-hearted note-----