As the Comptroller and Auditor General will recognise, the supplementary report is based almost entirely on information provided by the university in its internal inquiries into the issues he raises. In the context of the report, I mention two developments, the growth in demand for continuing education, or what is now popularly termed lifelong learning, and the increasing internationalisation of universities. This means that an institution like UCD must aspire to be a player on the world stage.
Since many of those who are interested in continuing education are in employment and cannot attend on a full-time basis, courses must be provided in a way that allows them to combine study with continuance in employment. Thus, we provide a bachelor of arts modular degree in the evening and courses for updating professional and business skills are offered on a part-time basis with evening or weekend involvement. Last week we had our first graduate in the bachelor of business studies degree in trade union studies, which is a joint venture with the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.
We have also expanded our role in international education, particularly in the faculties of medicine and commerce. Last May the Minister for Education and Science and the Secretary General of that Department attended the formal opening of our medical college in Penang in Malaysia. This is a joint venture between University College Dublin and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland under which medical students spend their first three years studying in Ireland and complete their medical training in the college in Penang. They then receive degrees from the National University of Ireland and licentiates from the Royal College of Surgeons.
The faculty of commerce also conducts a number of overseas programmes, mainly in Asia. In undertaking such ventures, we were following the example of many universities in the USA, Australia, New Zealand and the UK. These courses allowed staff to gain valuable experience abroad and established contacts in Asia beneficial to the university and to the country since they were in line with the Asia strategy adopted by the Government. In a speech last June on the occasion of the State visit of the Prime Minister of Singapore, the Taoiseach expressed his satisfaction that the education links between Ireland and Singapore were being maintained by our universities. It must also be stressed that the courses in medicine and commerce brought considerable revenue to the university.
A number of these courses at home and abroad have been provided through the subsidiary company which the Comptroller and Auditor General mentioned, Advanced Management Programmes UCD Limited or AMP Limited. As I understand it, the reason my predecessor adopted the vehicle of a subsidiary company in 1993 was to lessen the risk to the university should the venture prove unprofitable. However, AMP Limited has operated successfully, has made substantial surpluses and has given the taxpayer and the State great value for money.
Payments to staff have traditionally been made for additional work, such as examination correction and invigilation, the B.Ed. module degree, adult education programmes and courses under the aegis of the university industry programme. Academic staff also receive payment for the additional work undertaken for courses run by AMP Limited. It should be stressed that all payments made by AMP Limited were properly subjected to PAYE and PRSI, a fact confirmed by a recent Revenue audit.
As the volume of activity grew in AMP Limited, the finance committee of the university, under my chairmanship, sought a detailed review of its operations. As the Comptroller and Auditor General said, a report was commissioned from the auditors to the company, Chapman Flood Mazars, Chartered Accountants. The resulting report was discussed in detail with the Comptroller and Auditor General. Arising therefrom, it was decided to make all additional payments subject to the approval of the finance committee once it had been informed by the appropriate head of department that the payment was for work outside normal duties. In taking this approach, we were cognisant not only of that report but also of a recent European Commission report on increasing life long learning in European higher education. The latter report recommended that universities should lay down financial rules making clear what is included in the normal workload of staff and what rewards they should receive for additional work.
As regards overseas courses, a dean of international affairs was appointed to take responsibility for all such courses and a code of conduct to govern them, drawn up by him, was approved by the governing authority in March 2000.
It has been suggested that the involvement of the graduate business school in the faculty of commerce in these courses at home and abroad has done some damage to its reputation. However, all the evidence is to the contrary. In 1999, in the Financial Times survey of business schools worldwide, the graduate business school was ranked ninth in Europe for top business schools and first in the world for return on investment for MBA graduates. More recently, the faculty of commerce as a whole was given international accreditation by the European quality improvements system, EQIS, which is the quality assurance arm of the European Foundation for Management Development. It is the only faculty of commerce in Ireland to receive such an accolade.
In keeping with the trend for greater transparency in the business and commercial community in Ireland, the governance of higher education establishments is evolving and taking shape. The Universities Act, 1997, was a significant step forward in that evolution. I welcome the developments which have taken place to date and I look forward to continuing to work with the Higher Education Authority and the Comptroller and Auditor General to ensure that UCD plays its full part as this evolution continues.