Third Level Grants

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 27 June 2012

Wednesday, 27 June 2012

Questions (9)

Barry Cowen

Question:

9. Deputy Barry Cowen asked the Minister for Education and Skills if he will explain the funding options that are available to persons who want to study at postgraduate level from September 2012 but cannot afford to following the abolition of postgraduate grants and in view of the fact that the back to education allowance is not an option for many in view of the fact that their chosen area for postgraduate study is different to that studied at undergraduate level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [30944/12]

Oral answers (7 contributions)

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

Students entering postgraduates courses who meet the qualifying conditions for the special rate of grant will be eligible to have their postgraduate tuition fees paid up to the maximum fee limit of €6,270 under the student grant scheme. In addition, a limited number of students who would previously have qualified under the standard grant thresholds will qualify for a €2,000 contribution towards the costs of their fees. The new income threshold for this payment is €31,500 for the 2012-13 academic year, increasing relative to the number of family dependants. Maintenance payments beyond these levels of fee support will not be provided. Postgraduate students continuing on their existing courses will not be affected by these changes. A number of financial institutions offer loans for postgraduate studies.

Deputy Brendan Smith

Deputy Crowe referred earlier to deficiencies in language teaching. I spoke privately with the Minister while we were campaigning in the recent referendum about my shock at the number of people from outside this jurisdiction who were working in a certain enterprise because of a lack of people with specific skills here. At a recent party meeting a young person who is pursuing postdoctoral studies expressed concern about the drop in the number of Irish graduates undertaking postgraduate courses and, specifically, PhD courses in the sciences. She indicated that there was a visible decrease in the number of new Irish PhD students in postgraduate labs and pointed out that most people who achieve that level of education are guaranteed employment. She was concerned that these opportunities are being taken up by non-Irish postgraduate students. From her experience as a young person, she feared those who came to college a few years after her would not get the same opportunities to avail of the grant system, with fees paid and adequate maintenance.

We know the ICT sector needs more graduates and the same could be said of the pharmaceutical sector, where there has been a move to bio-pharmaceuticals. There are challenges and job opportunities and we want to ensure our people with the requisite skills and ability have the opportunity to pursue those studies, gain useful employment and create employment for others.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

Science Foundation Ireland was a very good initiative established by a Minister in the Fianna Fáil-led Administration in the late 1990s and has put an enormous amount of money into science and science-related research. It has benefited in the main, but not exclusively, science graduates who want to do postgraduate work, including doctoral and postdoctoral studies. Substantial funding remains in that area. There was a difficulty in attracting people into the STEM areas and into science subjects at undergraduate level. My predecessor, Mary Coughlan, was instrumental in persuading the universities application system to award an extra 25 points for higher level mathematics, which is the gateway into science-related subjects such as physics, chemistry and engineering. If Deputy Smith's party member has specific evidence of declines in particular areas, I am happy to seek a detailed explanation. My impression is that there is no shortage, relative to the space available, of people to do postgraduate work in Ireland. However, there is an internationalisation of the third level sector at postdoctoral level. That is a good thing because Irish people move to other universities and people come to ours.

Deputy Anthony Lawlor

I welcome the news on the grants. Some students find it difficult to get loans from financial institutions for postgraduate courses. Will the Minister consider a guarantee to back up the students applying for loans?

Deputy Seán Crowe

When we discussed this before, the Minister said he would know the drop-off rates in October. Is that still the position?

Deputy Brendan Smith

Considerable progress can be made in achieving better collaboration between the universities, the institutes of technology and relevant industries. We made progress in this area when I was in the Department. It is relevant to the point made about Deputy Donnelly's question. There can be better collaboration and better utilisation of resources and less duplication. This will be of benefit to more people.

Deputy Ruairí Quinn

In response to Deputy Lawlor's question, the problem is that financial institutions in the private sector are making loans available but, in many cases, parents or family relatives must go guarantor. Evidently, that mitigates against people without familial support to underwrite the loan. We are looking at ways in which loan finance can be made easier to access.

The detailed statistics on participation will be available when we see what happens in October.

I agree with Deputy Smith. We are looking for better collaboration between third level institutions and local businesses. This is particularly true in the institutes of technology sector, where the needs of business and enterprise in the general scientific research and applied research areas can be met. I saw very good examples of that in Athlone over nine months ago. In implementing the Hunt report, the Higher Education Authority, HEA, has asked institutes and universities to reply by the end of this month on their intentions regarding strategic alliances and collaboration as part of the review and reform of the HEA area.