Matt Shanahan (Waterford, Independent)
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408. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if the technological university resources will now be rebalanced to align with the aspirations of Project Ireland 2040 to support regional growth given that the university sector has grown by 40% since 2000 and the institute of technology sector has grown by 3% which is feeding the perception that Dublin, with its multiple universities, is sucking the life out of the rest of the country. [43568/20]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The creation of technological universities (TUs) represents a step change in the State’s higher education system and strengthens the ambitions of Government for technological education. TUs will bring significant benefits in terms of increased reach, international recognition, research capacity building, FDI attraction, skills retention and creation, regional development, enhanced staff and student experience and opportunities and socio-economic progression.

The establishment of other TUs in addition to the current TU Dublin and Munster Technological University, in the Midlands / Midwest, North / North West and the South East over the next number of years, in fulfilment of commitments in the Programme for Government, will ensure an equitable regional distribution of this new type of higher education institution.

Arising directly from the 2019 TURN high level group report, which sets out the blueprint for successful TUs and their development in the State, Budget 2020 introduced a new TU transformation fund of €90 million going out to 2023. This represents a trebling of annual funding and will see TU-oriented funding increase to over €120 million by 2023. The fund will assist in key investment areas including digital infrastructure, research capacity building, change management, systems integration, governance and project management structures and information sharing to establish TUs and assist them to deliver key strategic social and economic development objectives and to respond to specific diverse regional and sectoral impacts such as Brexit.

On 7 October, I announced a total of €34.3 million in funding allocations under the Fund. The allocations will be disbursed in two tranches in quarter 4 this year and quarter 1 next year. Further allocations will be made in 2021 and 2022 with an emphasis from next year onwards on assisting inter-TU and consortia collaboration on systemic projects as TUs bed down and start to operate within their new environments, in pursuance of their missions and functions in the crucial formative years.

In tandem, the Department is working with sectoral stakeholders and with other Government Departments to establish the mechanisms through which TUs can become more financially independent as elaborated in the 2019 TURN report. This includes the development of a borrowing framework which will enable TUs to access non-Exchequer funding such as the European Investment Bank provides and put them on an equal footing with the traditional universities.

Other relevant TURN report recommendations relate to enabling TUs to build their research capacity in both applied and theoretical fields and to attract both increased research funding and to retain and attract high calibre research staff. This would involve the reconfiguration of the financing models currently in place in the publicly funded higher education sector.

The TURN report also recommends there should be a prioritisation of capital investment in TUs in the allocation of capital funding resources to the higher education in prescribed circumstances. Currently eleven building projects in the technological sector are being advanced as part of the Higher Education PPP Programme. The projects are particularly urgent for delivery given their role in enabling projected increases in student enrolments, addressing severe constraints with regard to existing infrastructure and advancing the TU agenda. The programme will deliver some 70,000m2 of additional space, generating an additional 8,000 student places, mainly in STEM-related areas.

Government funding is allocated or distributed to higher education institutions by the Higher Education Authority (HEA). In 2016, the HEA appointed an independent Expert Panel to review the current allocation model for funding higher education and to make recommendations on the most appropriate funding model for the future. The review involved research and analysis and extensive consultation with stakeholders and examined, inter alia, key issues and questions, the cost drivers and the costing system underpinning higher education and international funding allocation approaches. The review report recommends reforms to the HEA funding distribution model (RFAM). It also highlights the importance of innovation, research and performance measures in the higher education sector. The review of the funding model provides a roadmap for transitioning towards a reformed model that is consistent across all higher education institutions - Institutes of Technology, traditional universities and TUs – and that is more transparent, that incentivises actions in key strategic areas such as research and STEM provision and that supports improved accountability while also respecting institutional autonomy. This will ensure that the additional funding available for higher education is targeted effectively and that institutions are held accountable for how they use public resources. Phased implementation of the report recommendations commenced in 2019 and by end 2020 over €75 million of additional funding measures will have been allocated. In 2020, an additional €1.2 million is allocated to the HEA to continue implementation of the report recommendations. A key recommendation is the development of a Universal Funding Model applied consistently across higher education institutes with consultants Deloitte being appointed by HEA in 2019 to undertake a scoping exercise on an appropriate model. The HEA working with the Department, the Department of Expenditure and Public Reform, the Irish Universities Association and the Technological Higher Education Association will commence development of a conceptual framework towards adoption of a Common Full Economic Costing System applying across the entire higher education sector. This will be an important milestone to help underpin a new strategic funding policy for the sector.