Ivana Bacik (Independent) | Oireachtas source

As always, the Minister is very welcome to the House. Others have spoken about his reform record. I wish to pay tribute to him on that, particularly his work on pluralism in the primary sector regarding the patronage of schools. I have been directly involved with the Minister on the latter subject. He has really made considerable progress on what parents want to see, namely, greater diversity of choice in the schools available for their children. I thank the Minister for that and for the work he has done on literacy. There is to be a big launch of the Right to Read campaign later this week with Deputy Ó Ríordáin. The reforms of the junior certificate are very child centred. Others have spoken about the reforms involving SUSI and so on.

We would particularly like to thank the Minister for his willingness to initiate legislation in this House, including this Bill. We really appreciate that. It is great to get Bills like this first in the Seanad, particularly when they pertain to subjects such as higher education, in which a number of us clearly have a particular interest.

I agree with Senator O'Donovan on the timing. It was unfortunate that the Bill was published only so recently, on Thursday night. It was referred to in the schedule send around on Thursday afternoon; Senator Moran and I checked that. There is always an issue in July with regard to legislation being rushed in. It is not ideal to have such a short period between the publication of a Bill and its introduction in a House.

Turning to the Bill itself, as others have said, it has one primary purpose and two other issues contained within it. The primary purpose, of course, is provision for a very restrictive recognition, or restrictive authorisation, to describe a provider of education as a university outside the State for specified purposes. Senator Barrett and I had a brief conversation as to whether a simple amendment to the Universities Act would have sufficed if we had wished, for example, to just include one institution, such as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland. However, on reading section 2 carefully, I believe it is a much more limited idea of university recognition. Indeed, it is not university recognition and is, in fact, authorisation to be described as a university outside the State for specified purposes. Furthermore, section 2 states that an "education provider which is granted a university authorisation under this section shall not describe itself ... as a university otherwise than for a specified purpose outside the State". I and, I believe, Senator Barrett would approve entirely of that very restrictive approach and that more limited authorisation.

We all appreciate, as Senator Moran and others have said, the need to encourage more international students to study here, as the programme for Government has stated. Indeed, we recognise the huge benefits, not just economic but also cultural and social, that internationalisation of our education system provides.

The Royal College of Surgeons has a strong tradition of educating international students and has made an immense contribution to the Irish health care system. On a day when we have seen a lot of publicity about the difficulty in recruiting doctors into our health service, it is important to note that we are offering high-quality medical education programmes such as those provided by the Royal College of Surgeons. There are some concerns, particularly with regard to its links with the regime in Bahrain, as other Senators have noted. However, it is already a recognised college of the National University of Ireland and it is clear that, given the very tightly drawn, restrictive criteria for eligibility, there are safeguards in place to ensure that the title of "university", even in this limited sense, will not be overused.

There is a broader issue which has been raised by some of the Irish universities, which is a concern about the devaluing of the status of "university". I believe that is covered by the very tightly drafted provisions in sections 2 to 5 in particular.

I also wanted to mention the issue of the school league tables. I entirely agree with the Minister about the need to guard against publication of crude school league tables. We have seen in other jurisdictions that this can lead to unfair jockeying for position among parents. It essentially sets up a false competition because, of course, as Senator Moran has said, academic results are not the only measure of success for a school. Schools will have different demographics and it is hugely important that schools would have diversity in their enrolment. One of the many reforms the Minister has brought in is to ensure that we have fairer enrolment policies in our schools. I believe publication of school league tables militates against that sort of fair enrolment policy as it creates unfair competition and puts huge pressure on parents and on schools.

I support the Bill. I commend the Minister again on this great reforming work in the education sector.