Vol. 432 No. 1
23 Mr. J. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Education if her attention has been drawn to the EC Elliot report which projects that the numbers of EC University students will fall by 25 per cent in 25 years; the relative figures projected for Ireland; her views on encouraging greater participation in third level education; and if she will make a statement on the matter.
The Elliot report, Report of the European Parliament Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media on the EC Commission's Memorandum on Higher Education in the EC of which Mr. Michael Elliot was the rapporteur does not in fact project that the numbers of EC university students will fall by 25 per cent in 25 years. The report notes that in its Memorandum the Commission identifies two parallel trends within the EC. One is a continuing growth in the demand for highly trained and skilled people to meet the needs of an increasingly complex and technologically based European society. The second is a demographic decline in the numbers of young people available for entry into higher education on a community wide basis. The decline will vary from one member state to another and the figure of at least 25 per cent is an overall forecast over the next 20 to 30 years for the community.
But this does not necessarily mean that there will be a decline in the numbers of students attending higher education. In fact the Memorandum predicts that an overall increase in demand for higher education is likely in the future. This is in line with the situation in this country where student numbers in higher education have more than trebled from 21,000 in 1965 to almost 80,000 at present and are projected to increase to over 100,000 by the end of the century. In its booklet "Europe in Figures" which the Commission published in 1987 it notes that whereas there was a slump in the birth rate between 1960 and 1985 the numbers of students attending higher education increased by 77 per cent between 1970 and 1985.
