Policy Options for New Student Contributions in Higher Education - Report to the Minister

The Government’s Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal- Building Ireland’s Smart Economy, launched by the Taoiseach in late 2008, establishes Ireland’s ambition to become internationally renowned as an Innovation Island. At the core of achieving this ambition will be our capacity for producing highly skilled graduates and fostering a climate of creative thinking and advanced research and development. This relies on the quality of undergraduate provision right across the sciences, arts and humanities in our third level institutions. The development of a new national strategy for higher education is now underway. The strategy will aim to identify a vision and objectives for the development of the sector over the next twenty years. Leading higher education systems internationally are characterised by wide revenue sources that, in many cases, include a form of direct student contribution through a tuition fee or student loans system. If Ireland’s higher education system is to develop and meet future demands in an environment of increasingly tight public resources, then it is appropriate that the sector’s level of dependence on Exchequer funding should come under review.

Report to New Schools Establishment Group on the pilot surveys regarding parental preferences on primary school patronage

The Minister for Education and Skills outlined his action plan in response to the report of the Advisory Group to the Forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Primary Sector in June of this year. As part of the action plan the Minister announced that surveys of parental preferences in 44 areas would be undertaken, beginning with five pilot areas in the autumn of 2012. All of the areas to be surveyed under this process fit the following criteria: • Population of between 5,000 and 20,000 inhabitants according to the 2011 census • Population has increased by less than 20% during the inter-censal period 2006 to 2011 Surveys were undertaken on a pilot basis initially in five areas. The surveys were open for a total of three weeks from Monday 22nd October to Friday 9th November 2012 inclusive. This report has been prepared for the New Schools Establishment Group regarding the five pilot surveys and the analysis of the outcomes in each area. The report is comprised of this overall summary document and the separate detailed analysis documents in respect of each of the five areas that were surveyed and which are contained in Appendices 1 to 5. Appendix 6 is a sample of the paper survey which is similar to the on-line survey.