Andrew Doyle (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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384. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his views on the fact that the majority of Ireland's seven universities dropped places in the QS world university rankings table; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38305/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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In 2013 QS Rankings, Ireland again sees two of its eight top institutions featuring in the top 200, or top 1% out of some 15000 universities worldwide. All seven universities and Dublin Institute of Technology feature in the top 600 worldwide.

Both Trinity College Dublin and National University of Ireland, Galway have improved their performance on last year's results. They are to be congratulated, but it should be noted that a range of factors can influence an institution's placement from one year to another across the various different ranking systems, having regard to the different criteria employed and the relative performance of other institutions.

There can be significant debate around the relative importance attached to rankings criteria and on their capacity to fully capture the quality of what is on offer in higher education institutions. QS have been criticised for their reliance on highly subjective reputational surveys used for the reputation indicators. In Ireland's case it is likely that the perceptions of those surveyed will also have been influenced by external factors, including the wider economic crisis. QS use the student faculty ratio as a proxy for the quality of teaching and learning in our institutions and this indicator has been inevitably effected by the reality of Ireland's economic situation which presents challenges right across the public sector, including higher education.

Delivering high quality higher education for a growing proportion of our population in this context will mean that we need to maintain a clear focus on system performance overall rather than a narrower focus on individual institutional performance. However, it is recognised that league tables are referenced by international investors, employers and students as a marker of quality across systems and as such they cannot be ignored. While some higher education systems have invested heavily in elite institutions and adopted a policy of differentiated support for different tiers of institutions, in Ireland our focus is on advancing performance across an accessible and diverse system of institutions. This policy which promotes participation in high quality higher education provision is paying dividends for Ireland's growing competitiveness.

Ireland performs well against many international benchmarks and is ranked first in EU and fourth in OECD for higher education attainment rates of our 25-34 year olds.

Our high numbers of young graduates has led Ireland to be ranked 3rd for the availability of skilled labour in this year's IMD World Competitiveness Survey. This follows the positive findings of the 2012 Talent Shortage Survey conducted annually by the Manpower Group, which ranked Ireland as the global leader for the availability of skills and the least difficult location, globally, in which to find talent.