In terms of State recurrent grant funding provided towards the operating costs of public HEIs my Department allocates recurrent grant funding to the Higher Education Authority (HEA) for direct disbursement to HEA funded institutions.
A Recurrent Grant Allocation Model (RGAM) is in operation in the university and technology sectors and the annual core grant is allocated by the HEA to the HEIs as a block grant towards teaching, research and supporting activities. The allocation of the core grant is determined on a formula basis, based on a per-capita amount in respect of weighted eligible EU student numbers. RGAM is a distributive model therefore the annual amount per capita depends on the overall number of weighted full time equivalents (FTEs) within the overall sector and the overall level of funding available for distribution. FTEs calculated for grant allocation purposes differ from student numbers published for other purposes where different methodologies apply, such as those reported in the HEA's student records system.Work is currently underway to determine institutions’ core grants and it is currently not possible to determine the impact of the change of FTEs in TU Dublin on the institution's core grant for 2024. The Deputy may wish to note that the RGAM utilises a moderating mechanism to ensure that variations in core grant from one year to the next are limited. Further detail on the RGAM is available on the HEA website here: hea.ie/funding-governance-performance/funding/how-we-fund/