Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

The House shares those sentiments.
The other great improvement this year concerns SUSI. Some 165,000 students are now happier because of a system that works. I acknowledge that there are always matters to be evened out. The Ombudsman is examining 55 complaints. Some 21 were resolved, with ten in favour of the student. Some 165,000 students could have applied for the payments. The Department sent us a list for each county. A pupil who contacted me from Wexford rang the appropriate contact number that the Minister gave us for that county and had a problem resolved instantly. Some tens of thousands of young people are better off and better served by the State Examinations Commission, SUSI and this House.
I welcome the interest expressed by Minister of State, Deputy Cannon, recently in apprenticeships in this country. He pointed out that there are hundreds of apprenticeship courses in Austria, Switzerland and Germany but just a couple of dozen here. We have lost in this regard.
What has occurred is progress and I endorse everything Senator D'Arcy said in that regard. Having listened to the debate, I wondered whether an amendment to the Universities Act might address the issue of the Royal College of Surgeons, which appears to be the only eligible body at present, rather than special legislation. However, that is the Minister's choice and I accept what he said. An applicant provider must already have 40% of its registered student body in Ireland as non-EU students. There is only one institution that meets that criterion. An applicant will have to be entitled to award degrees at least at doctoral level. There is only one institution that meets that criterion.
With regard to what is known as a university abroad as opposed to here, are some of our colleagues in the third level sector a bit sensitive about titles? One earns one's reputation from the quality of one's graduates and research. MIT has a worldwide reputation. Some people said that in some parts of the world a college means a secondary school. Does that mean the London School of Economics must be a primary school? I wonder about titles as it is the quality of graduates and work that matters.
The Minister referred to the commitment to encourage more international students to study here and to create new jobs in the sector, with the particular aim of doubling the number of students from priority and emerging markets outside the European Union. Is that a viable target? There is an increase in the birth rate here, to which the Minister has drawn attention. He referred to the amount of work being done at primary level to cater for the increase in the birth rate. If we removed from the system students whose parents paid the taxes to support Irish higher education to engage in the kinds of activities in question, a cost would be involved. If there was spare capacity in the Irish system, the target might make more sense. However, we will be put to the pin of our collar to satisfy the increasing demand from within the jurisdiction that we serve.
There tends to be fashions in higher education and offshore campuses were a fashion. Results from the United Kingdom and Dubai, in particular, have been somewhat less than impressive. Before the financial crisis in Dubai and before its economy went into freefall, 54 universities were on the waiting list to open international campuses. This is in an article published by Finnish economists in the March edition of Learning & Educationby the Academy of Management. There is a herd instinct and group-think in higher education suggesting what one should do. I plead with the Minister not to neglect undergraduates, who comprise the majority of the population in our universities, nor should he neglect lecturing to undergraduates because of managerial fashions and the fascination with life upstairs in a jumbo jet flying around the world setting up offshore campuses. Whether the suggested institutions would ever make enough money to compensate for the shortage of domestic money in the system is a moot point. They probably will not. These are caveats pertaining to the Government's target.
I support the Bill. It allows the Royal College of Surgeons to continue with what it has been doing. There is a reputational risk that Members have referred to regarding the human rights record of some countries with which we could become associated. I must issue a caveat in this regard. It will not do Ireland's international reputation much good.
The Minister must ensure that if this is a money-making exercise, the degrees on the offshore campus are directly comparable with those here and that the students are as good. If we say we cannot afford to fail a large proportion of the students, we are undermining the standards of the home university. This may be difficult to address in some parts of the world. If we are in the business of buying and selling education based on Ireland's reputation, we must ensure that reputation for excellence is not compromised by the fact that we need the money from those concerned. It is a commercial business. To fail too many would undermine the commercial business.
There is a fairly unimpressive record on the part of many countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, with regard to offshore campuses. A large proportion of what is in the Bill is designed to protect Ireland in this regard, and I commend the Minister on that. The Minister is always welcome to the House. As with Senator D'Arcy, I believe he should be very proud of what he has done in Irish education. This Bill strikes the right balance. I have never worried about the league tables. I do not know whether they have any effect in any case. I appreciate the Minister's concerns about them and thank him.