Question:
34 Mr. O'Keeffe asked the Minister for Education if she intends to carry out unit cost analyses on universities and regional colleges and a unit cost comparison between universities and regional technical colleges.
Written Answers. - University Sector Unit Cost Analysis.
The Higher Education Authority has instituted a unit cost project in the university sector. The process is being refined over time and is being used at present to inform funding decisions by the authority as well as by university management.
No unit cost exercise has yet been carried out in the regional technical colleges. I consider that any such exercise should wait until the process in the universities has been sufficiently developed, refined and evaluated. However a cost effectiveness measure — teaching hours per annum per student — is being widely used within the regional technical college sector and by my Department to assist in the management process.
The two sectors within higher education have a common concern to provide the highest quality education for their students and to act as catalysts of social and economic development in their regions and nationally. Both sectors seek to realise these aims through complementary but different and distinct programmes and activities in teaching and research. Any valid unit cost comparison would necessarily have to take into account the complementary but different roles of the two sectors.