Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Senator for raising this issue.

The framework for system development laid out in the national strategy for higher education to 2030 includes a developmental pathway towards designation as a technological university for merged institutes of technology which seek to apply. The Higher Education Authority, HEA, has been asked to implement this framework. The implementation process is well under way. The Landscape document published in February 2012 lays out a clear four-stage process and criteria for institutes of technology that wish to apply for designation as a technological university. The process for designation is designed to ensure educational quality, objectivity, international expertise, fairness and transparency.

The process consists of four stages overseen by the HEA, with an independent international panel of experts to advise the authority in the final stages. The first stage of the process required institutes of technology which wished to merge and seek designation as a technological university to submit a formal expression of interest to the HEA last July. The HEA will submit its formal advice on an outline configuration for the future higher education system after Easter. This will include advice on the progress of institutes of technology interested in seeking to move to the second stage of the designation process.

The second stage of the process involves detailed project planning followed by submission and evaluation of those plans. How long it then takes for applicants to formally seek designation will depend very much on the capacity of the applicant institutions at the time of plan submission and how long their developmental trajectory towards meeting the criteria will take. Full legal consolidation of the institutes of technology seeking designation also has to occur before the final application for designation is submitted. The drafting of legislative proposals to provide for the amalgamation of institutes of technology and the establishment of technological universities will be advanced in tandem with the designation process as part of the work that is under way on implementing the higher education strategy.

In view of the process that has been put in place to assess proposals for designation as technological universities, it would not be appropriate to comment specifically on any potential applications for designation by any group of institutes of technology.