Published: 06 February 2009

06 January, 2009 - Minister O'Keeffe announces plans for new national higher education strategy

[Source: Dept of Education and Science]

'Steering group to produce blueprint for development of higher education sector over next two decades' - Minister

The Minister for Education and Science, Batt O'Keeffe TD, today announced the launch of a process to develop a new national strategy for higher education which will set out the blueprint for the development of the sector over the next two decades.

Minister O'Keeffe said a steering group, to be chaired by economist Dr Colin Hunt, will oversee the development of the strategy.

Membership of the steering group, which is expected to complete its work before the end of the year, will draw on national and international expertise including academic, business, community and student interests, as well as senior government officials.

The membership of the steering group is not intended to be representational in nature.

Opportunity for consultation and input will be provided to relevant interest groups in the course of developing the strategy.
The strategy will be framed in the context of the Government's drive towards sustainable economic renewal.

The Government's economic framework document published before Christmas, 'Building Ireland's Smart Economy - A Framework for Sustainable Economic Renewal', committed to delivering a new higher education strategy to enhance system-wide performance in supporting Ireland's development as an 'Innovation Island'.

Announcing the launch of the process, Minister O'Keeffe said he wanted to see a critical examination of the roles and relationships of institutions in the higher education system so that it can deliver the levels of efficiency, performance, innovation and growth that will optimise Ireland's economic recovery and social development in the coming years.

'The challenge of economic renewal requires us to ramp up our innovation performance.

'To help make that happen, we need to reinvent and rethink our approaches in higher education.

'We need to examine how well our higher education system is performing, how it ranks internationally, how well existing resources are being used and how the system can be re-configured to meet the challenges we now face.

'Our higher education system is a cornerstone of national infrastructure for generating the skills, knowledge and innovation on which Ireland's future competitive advantage relies.

'The development of this strategy offers a critical opportunity to advance performance across the system and provide important impetus to our efforts for economic renewal,' said Minister O'Keeffe.

Notes for Editors:
Steering Group Membership
Dr Colin Hunt, Economist, Macquarie Capital Advisers
Dr John Hegarty, Provost Trinity College Dublin
Marion Coy, President, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology
Dick Lehane, former Senior Vice-President of Worldwide Manufacturing at the EMC Corporation
Paul Rellis, Managing Director, Microsoft Ireland
Peter Cassells,Chair of the National Centre for Partnership Performance
Shane Kelly, President of USI
Michael Kelly, Chairman of Higher Education Authority
Dr Mary Canning, Former World Bank Education Specialist and authority member, HEA
Brigid McManus, Secretary General, Department of Education and Science
Martin Shanagher, Assistant Secretary, Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment
Mary Doyle, Assistant Secretary, Department of An Taoiseach
Robert Watt, Assistant Secretary, Department of Finance
Two international experts in the higher education field will also serve on the steering group. Their names are currently subject to confirmation.

Terms of Reference
1. To consider the role of Irish higher education in the context of higher education's role in modern societies and, in particular, in the modern knowledge society.
2. Describe and analyse the current environment of Irish higher education including:
the current system in terms of its student numbers, funding, funding models, organisational arrangements and the roles of the different public and private entities involved in the higher education and research domain;
the existing policy objectives;
identification and assessment of external factors likely to influence change in the sector (e.g. demographics, student mobility) and;
the international environment in which the Irish higher education system operates including the benchmarking of the system against relevant international comparators and higher education systems, processes and outcomes in other countries.
3. Having regard to the issues arising from 1 and 2 above, and from the process of consultation on those issues, to develop a vision and related set of national policy objectives for Irish higher education for the next 20 years with more focussed targets for the sector for the next five years.
4. Having regard to the outcomes of 3 above, and taking into account best international practice, identify the operational framework of the higher education system including the number and roles of institutions within it which will enable it to deliver on these policy objectives; recommend any changes required in the system of oversight and accountability that will support achievement of objectives; determine the level of resources required to achieve the stated objectives, look at the effectiveness of use of current resources, identify any potential for rationalisation or change to maximise the use of those resources and identify how any additional resource requirements can be met having particular regard to the difficult budgetary and economic climate that is in prospect in the medium term.

ENDS