Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Amendment No. 12 provides that Ireland's commitments under the 2001 Prague communiqué of ministers of education in Europe and subsequent communiqués will be respected. To reflect these commitments, one fifth of members of the academic council should be students of the technological university. Since 1999, Ireland has been a leading member of the Bologna Process and a number of Ministers for education have made commitments under that process. The Bologna conference recognised that students are full members of the higher education community and competent, active and constructive partners who should participate in and influence the organisation and content of education at universities and other higher education institutions. Successive Ministers have signed up to this serious and crucial commitment every two years since 2001, most recently in 2015.

Reference was made to the Universities Act and I do not wish to reopen the discussion on the matter, other than to note that the Universities Act refers to law which was made prior to Ireland joining the Bologna Process. There is, therefore, a concern that the Act, which is being held up as a standard for the Bill before us, does not reflect stated Government policy under the Bologna Process. The Minister may have missed an opportunity to introduce in the Bill new standards that reflect the Bologna Process. It would have been ideal if the legislation were to include standards that could subsequently be used to improve the Universities Act.

The European Students Union and others have found that the standard for student participation in governance of higher education institutions is that they account for approximately one fifth of the seats on the various education bodies. The law in Norway provides that students must constitute one fifth of members of governing bodies or academic councils.It goes all the way down to course boards. The next ministerial conference as part of the Bologna Process will be held in France in May. My motivation in tabling the amendment which I will not press was to query Ireland's position in terms there being a genuine commitment to the Bologna Process. Does the Minister of State intend to update both this legislation and the Universities Act to reflect the Government's commitments and the standards agreed to across Europe under the Bologna Process?

On amendments Nos. 13 and 14, there is no need to reiterate the points made as they were discussed fully on Committee Stage. There should be at least one student representative on an academic council. Again, it is about providing statutory protection to ensure there will always be at least one student representative or voice on academic councils at which important decisions are made on academic research and the development of technological universities. We must ensure they will include an appropriate number of students and that they will not become bodies without students. We do not anticipate that that will be the case, but, as we have said at length, we wish to have that statutory protection. That is why I hope the Minister of State will accept amendment No. 13 which provides for a minimum number of one student representative. I hope we will not have to return to this issue after the fact to rectify the position where students have been excluded from academic councils. This is a preventive and appropriate measure.