Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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Question 264: To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the Higher Education Authority has published guidelines for the establishment of higher education institutional clusters at a regional level to support enterprise development and employment needs; if not, when it will be completed; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20043/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The landscape documentation published by the HEA on 13th February includes guidelines for regional clusters and is available on www.hea.ie. The building of regional collaborative clusters of all our higher education institutions is key to the delivery of many of the most important objectives of the National Strategy including achieving a more coherent, higher quality education system that is more responsive to the needs of students and enterprise. Regional Clusters will allow programmes of teaching and learning to be better planned and co-ordinated, resources to be used more efficiently and more flexible student pathways and better progression opportunities to be put in place.