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

In this way, the concepts of research, research student and resulting awards are used in an inclusive way to accommodate the range of activities that support original and innovative work in the whole range of academic, professional and technological fields, including the humanities and traditional performing and other creative arts. They are not used in any limited or restricted sense but but are understood to involve the integration of rigour, reflection and critique, as normally reflected in the Irish and European higher education tradition.