Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The national framework of qualifications, NFQ, level 5 can refer to an honours level leaving certificate qualification as well as other types of further education. The amendment seeks to add to the requirement on applicant institutions such that as well as showing compliance with the eligibility criteria set out in section 29, an applicant institution would also demonstrate that it meets the standard required for university designation. These standards are not defined.

However, we have defined the eligibility criteria and the consortia have been working on them. To add at this stage an abstract concept such as, "the standards required for university designation", would bring a note of uncertainty and an element of subjectivity as to what such a standard is. What we have put into the Bill is eligibility for technological universities.