Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 26 January 2016
429. Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of increasing the per capita recurrent grant to all universities and institutes of technology by 10% in 2016-17; and the cost of restoring the pre-2011 level of recurrent grant per capita to all higher education institutes. [2896/16]
View answerFunding of over €928 million has been allocated by my Department in 2016 to the higher education institutions under the designation of the Higher Education Authority, including the Universities and Institutes of Technology. This amounts to c. €4,737 per full time equivalent student (where part-time students are calculated at 0.5 FTE). A 10% increase in per capita funding would require €103 million additional funding in 2017. Restoring per capita funding to pre-2011 levels, i.e. 2010 levels, would require €439 million in additional funding in 2017. It should be noted that part of the decreases in the recurrent grant since 2010 were offset by required pay reductions and increases to the student contribution over this period.
