Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the per student funding formula or ratio used to calculate the Higher Education Authority grant provided to each HEA funded institution; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49954/12]

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the Higher Education Authority block grant provided to each HEA funded institution for the past five years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49955/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 294 and 295 together.

My Department allocates recurrent funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to the HEA institutions. The HEA allocates this grant to institutions for free fees and core grant funding and other specific earmarked initiatives. Institutions receive a grant in lieu of tuition fees for full time eligible EU students - based of certified returns from the institutions.

The HEA uses a Recurrent Grant Allocation Model (RGAM) to determine the amount of core funding (grant) provided to each University/Institute of Technology. Core funding is allocated on a formulae basis using this model and the general principle is that core funding allocations should be fair, simple, transparent and applied consistently across HEI's. Core funding allocated through the RGAM is based on price group-weighted student numbers. These include full-time and part-time, undergraduate and postgraduate students. Student numbers are weighted to reflect different subject areas as different subject areas have different costs. Some access and research metrics are also used. Institutions are ultimately allocated a block grant, and the internal allocation of same is a matter for each institution as an autonomous body.

Details of the recurrent grant allocated to each HEA institution by the HEA is set out in the table.

Institutes of Technology

2008-2012* Grant and Free Fees allocations

*Please note that the 2012 allocations are not final

** Limerick IT data for 2012 and 2011 includes allocations for Tipperary Institute

Universities and Other Colleges

2008-2012* Grant and Free Fees allocations

* Not all grants allocated yet .

Note:

These tables show the block grant (grant and fees) allocated to the HEA institutions. Please note that the figures exclude Nursing, which was transferred to the HEA from the Department of Health in 2011 (grants to relevant institutions totalled €55.8m in 2011 and €53.1m in 2012) and Springboard (grants totalled c.€3.9m in 2011 and c.€1.5m to date 2012). The tables also exclude sectoral initiatives (eg. HEAnet, An Cheim, e-journals etc).

Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will outline the list of efficiencies achieved over the past year by the Higher Education Authority following the reduction in core funding for higher education in Budget 2012; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [49956/12]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Under the Employment Control Framework, introduced in the higher education sector , core staff numbers were reduced by 7.3% between December 2008 and December 2010 i.e. significantly in excess of the 6% reduction which had been required. Core staff numbers were further reduced in 2011 bringing the total reduction against 2008 to c. 9% by end December 2011. (It is to be noted that over the same period, overall public sector numbers decreased by 7.2%). As further reductions are required in the sector in 2012, it is anticipated that total core staff numbers will have been reduced in total by a minimum of c. 10% by end December 2012.

In the context of reducing staff numbers outlined above, full-time student numbers increased by 17,000 or 12%.between December2008 and December 2011 . Furthermore, institutions have continued to engage proactively with sectoral labour market initiatives e.g. Springboard.

Some of the decrease in funding has been addressed through the internal reform of institutions; through mechanisms that have stimulated increased productivity, such as the Croke Park Agreement, and through institutions' diversification of their funding base to include income from philanthropic and commercial sources. Institutions are continually engaging in shared services and procurement initiatives to effect savings. The HEA has emphasised the need for all HEIs to review the full range of services they provide and their associated cost structures with a view to reducing or eliminating unnecessary or unsustainable costs particularly in the area of unnecessary programme duplication.