Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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325. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the total annual cost in Trinity College Dublin of providing free open online courses worldwide as part of a new global partnership with Futurelearn; if he will provide a breakdown of the cost of the programme design, server maintenance, advertising and any other line item costs associated with free online courses; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31777/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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The position is that higher education institutions, including universities such as Trinity College Dublin, are autonomous bodies and their day to day operational affairs including issues such as the provison of online courses are the responsibility of the management authority and governing body of the University.

However, I understand that the HEA has been in contact with the college and has been informed that the platform, technical and marketing costs of these courses are covered by FutureLearn with the programme development costs covered by Trinity. The HEA also understand that to date no costs have been incurred and Trinity College expect future costs to be minimal. They will be monitoring the cost-benefit of this initiative.

Damien English (Meath West, Fine Gael)
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326. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide an overview of the headline financial situation in terms of revenue, deficit and debt in Trinity College Dublin, University College Dublin, University College Cork, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, Dublin City University and the University of Limerick; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31778/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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Details of the headline financial situation in respect of the seven Universities are set out in the following document. These details are based on 2011/12 funding statements of the Universities.

PQ - Revenues, Deficits & Debt

2011/12 Funding Statements

* Debt is defined as bank loans and borrowings due in greater than 1 year as reported in the funding statements