Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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70. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the details of his engagement with organisations (details supplied) with respect to the examination of academic support activities of PhD students. [5978/22]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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Officials in my Department have been undertaking am examination of the issues in relation to academic support activities of PhD students. This has been done in collaboration with the Irish Universities Association and Technological Higher Education Association and the National Advisory Forum for Ireland’s Framework for Doctoral Education.

This work includes looking at international practice and gathering information on the institutions’ expectations of PhD students to undertake academic support activities across the higher education system.

Building on this initial work, I wrote to the Presidents of the HEIs requesting that they undertake a sectoral exercise to agree a set of high-level principles to which all institutions can work towards. As part of this I am proposing that they undertake a gap analysis to determine the next steps in progressing towards greater consistency and transparency in arrangements for postgraduate researchers, in advance of the next academic year. I have also written to the sector’s representative bodies, the IUA and THEA, requesting that they work in close partnership to ensure that the pathways scoped out allow for convergence of approaches across the entire higher education sector.

I will be seeking regular updates on progress with this work at meetings of the National Advisory Forum for Ireland’s Framework for Doctoral Education.