Michael P. Kitt
Question:227 Mr. M. Kitt asked the Minister for Education the proposals, if any, there are to award university status to the Dublin Institute of Technology colleges; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24392/96]
Written Answers. - Dublin Institute of Technology.
Willie O'Dea
Question:232 Mr. O'Dea asked the Minister for Education if she will allow the Dublin Institute of Technology to make its own degree awards from 1998. [24425/96]
Mary Coughlan
Question:235 Miss Coughlan asked the Minister for Education the reason she has not implemented the recommendations of the third-level review body in respect of the Dublin Institute of Technology; and her proposals for the Dublin Institute of Technology in the future. [24429/96]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 227, 232 and 235 together.
I asked the Higher Education Authority in 1995 to establish an international review team to advise on whether the Dublin Institute of Technology should be given the power to award its own degrees. The establishment of the review team was a further strong indication of my commitment to the development of the Dublin Institute of Technology.
The review team reported this summer and recommended that degree-awarding powers should be granted to the Dublin Institute of Technology with effect from the 1998-99 academic year.
Following a meeting with representatives of the Dublin Institute of Technology on Thursday, 12 December, I indicated my intention to make an order to confer degree awarding powers on the Institute from the 1998-99 academic year as recommended by the review team. The relevant order is subject to the provisions of the Dublin Institute of Technology Act, 1992.
Degree awarding powers for the Dublin Institute of Technology will be within the policy framework set out in the White Paper on EducationCharting Our Education Future.
Section 9 of the Universities Bill, now before the Dáil, provides a mechanism by which an institution can attain university status. This is the first time that a formal mechanism, by which an institution may become a university, is being placed on a statutory basis. If, in the future, moving to university status enhances the mission of the Dublin Institute of Technology, then section 9 of the Universities Bill provides an appropriate mechanism for achieving this.