Charlie McConalogue (Donegal North East, Fianna Fail)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the progress that has been made on the implementation of the priority areas from the National Strategy for Higher Education, specifically the sustainability review, the landscape process, the national quality PhD framework and the national student survey; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48670/13]

Ruairi Quinn (Dublin South East, Labour)
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An Implementation plan which sets out the actions necessary to implement the recommendations in the Strategy is available on my Department's website at . The Plan identifies the lead organisations and the timeframe for implementation of each action. A detailed progress report on the implementation of all of the actions in the Plan to the end of 2012 is also available on the website.

In May 2013 I announced a major re-organisation of the higher education system which will provide for the reduction in the size of the publicly funded higher education system from 39 to 25 institutions. In July 2013 a new framework for system governance was published which sets out the Government's national priorities, key system objectives and key performance indicators for the period 2014-16. The configuration report and the performance framework are also available on my Department's website.

A study on the sustainability of the current funding system for higher education, which was initiated at my request, is currently being undertaken by the HEA. The objective of the study is to identify a range of approaches that, combined, will offer the best prospect of achieving the required outcomes from resources, the mechanisms through which the institutions can have access to these resources and their capacity and flexibility to deploy and manage the resources. An initial report has been published which makes it clear that immediate work is required to prepare for a longer term approach to a system that can be maintained through a sustainable funding base which will be able to address the continual expansion of the sector while protecting the quality of education. The HEA is continuing its work in this area and I will be advised further as this work progresses.

Work on the development of a quality framework for doctoral education is well advanced. A consultation document issued jointly from the Higher Education Authority and Quality and Qualifications Ireland to higher education institutions and other stakeholders in early November and it is expected that the framework will be finalised by the end of this year. A further piece of work will be undertaken by QQI in 2014 involving a review of the effectiveness of quality assurance arrangements that currently apply to doctoral education and the development of a new Code of Practice.

A full national pilot of the student survey, involving all universities, institutes of technology and five colleges of education, was undertaken in March/April 2013. It was the first national survey of student engagement and the first survey of its kind in Europe. Almost 13,000 responses were received from students in 26 institutions. The number of responses means that results from the 2013 survey are representative of the overall student voice, even at pilot stage. A report on implementation of the pilot survey will be published in December 2013. Planning is at an advanced stage to ensure implementation of the first full student survey in early 2014, with further iterations due in 2015 and 2016.