Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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Question 226: To ask the Minister for Education and Science when he expects to receive the report of the Hunt Committee on Higher Education, originally due in late 2009. [9370/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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As the Deputy is aware, I have established a High Level Group to develop a new national strategy for higher education, which is examining how well Ireland's higher education system is performing, how it ranks internationally, how well existing resources are being used and how the system should be configured to best meet the many challenges it faces over the next decade having regard to the key role it has to play in contributing to Ireland's economic recovery.

A first round of consultation was completed in summer 2009, under which an open call for written submissions elicited a significant and valuable response. In addition to this first round of consultation, a series of discussion forums with academics, students, enterprise as well as bilateral meetings with other stakeholders, including the institutions, have been held. The outcomes of these consultations and other ongoing discussions are feeding into the current deliberations of the Strategy Group who are expected to finalise their report before the summer.