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Equality Issues

Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 17 June 2021

Thursday, 17 June 2021

Questions (380)

Holly Cairns

Question:

380. Deputy Holly Cairns asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the way in which his Department and agencies under his remit are working towards enabling access to employment for persons from minority and or disadvantaged communities, including, but not limited to, persons with disabilities, persons from ethnic minorities, Travellers, Mincéirí; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32741/21]

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Written answers

Inclusion is one of the core strategic goals for my Department, and my ambition is to ensure that we provide supports and opportunities for learning to all, recognising the needs of vulnerable learners and the most marginalised, and to assist people in access to and progression through higher and further education and training. A range of supports and measures are in place, which include the following:

The main support available to students is the statutory based Student Grant Scheme. Under the terms of the Student Grant Scheme, grant assistance is awarded to students attending an approved course in an approved institution who meet the prescribed conditions of funding including those which relate to nationality, residency, previous academic attainment and means. The decision on eligibility for a student grant is a matter, in the first instance, for the centralised student grant awarding authority SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) to determine. Further information in relation to student grant assistance is available from SUSI’s website, www.susi.ie. The telephone number for SUSI’s Helpdesk is 0761 087 874.

Equity of Access to Higher Education continues to be a national priority for the Government and the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The Programme for Government reflects the importance of supporting learners at risk of education disadvantage and learners with special education needs in higher education. The vision of National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education 2015-2021 is that the student body entering, participating in, and completing higher education at all levels reflects the diversity and social mix of Ireland’s population. The plan set out five goals and more than thirty actions, developed following widespread consultation with stakeholders, with the aim of supporting increased access and participation in higher education by six main target groups.

Those groups include entrants from socio-economic groups that have low participation in higher education; first-time mature students, students with disabilities, part-time/flexible learners, further education and training award holders; and Irish Travellers. The plan also indicated subgroups that require support, including lone parents, teen parents and ethnic minorities. Improving equity of access to higher education is an ongoing objective.

There are three main funding streams which support the implementation of the National Access Plan. These are:

- The Programme for Access to Higher Education;

- The Student Assistance Fund; and

- The Fund for Students with Disabilities

There are three strands to the Programme for Access to Higher Education (PATH) with an overall funding envelope of €40.4m. Strand 1 supports access to initial teacher education from the target groups identified in the National Access Plan. Strand 2 provides bursaries of €5,000 to students who have been identified by their higher education institution as being the most socio-economically disadvantaged students in the target groups under the National Access Plan. Strand 3 supports regional clusters of higher education institutions with the aim of attracting additional students from groups currently under-represented in higher education.

A new National Plan for Equity of Access to Higher Education will be developed in 2021 for the years 2022-2026. Consultations on the approach to the development of the Plan is on-going.

The Student Assistance Fund (SAF) provides financial assistance to students experiencing financial difficulties while attending third level. Students can be assisted towards costs such as rent, childcare costs, transport costs and books/class materials. Students on full or part-time courses leading to a higher education award (NQF level 6-10) in the universities, institutes of technology and other approved colleges can apply for the SAF. The core allocation for the SAF is €9.1 million per annum which is expected to support circa 14,000 students. This includes €1 million which was added to the fund in 2017 for part-time students who are lone parents or members of the other access target groups. Prior to that the fund supported full-time students only. An additional €1 million was added to the fund in 2018 for students attending Professional Masters of Education (PME) courses, who are experiencing financial difficulty. This additional funding was also made available for the 2019/20 year and again in 2020/21.

The Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD) supports participation by students with a disability in further and higher education. The FSD is one of the main funding sources supporting participation by students with disabilities in approved further and higher education courses in Ireland. It also supports students from Ireland to study on approved courses in Northern Ireland, the UK and other EU countries. The actual level of support to be provided to individual students is decided by each HEI who carry out a needs assessment to determine the types of supports and accommodations needed. The 2020 allocation to the fund is €9.6m which is expected to support circa 14,000 students. A significant development with this Fund has been the inclusion of students on part-time courses in 2018 and this continued into 2019 and 2020 also.

A progress review of the National Access Plan, published in December 2018, acknowledges a number of significant positive developments and characterises the first phase of implementation of the NAP as a period of achievement and investment. A major element of both progress to date and the future implementation of the plan has been the increased investment in new access initiatives since the original publication of the National Access Plan (NAP).

The objectives of the National Access Plan are supported by a range of interventions and programmes:

In response to the lower than anticipated progress for Travellers, an Action Plan for Increasing Traveller Participation in Higher Education 2019-2021 was launched in 2019 and its aim is to advance Traveller participation in higher education within the context of approaches on retention and transition of Travellers across the education spectrum.

A study commissioned by the Higher Education Authority on the challenges facing mature students participation in higher education has recently been published. The finding of the report will be considered in the context of the new National Access Plan 2022 – 2026 commencing in 2022.

In 2020 approximately €42 million within the core funding allocated to HEIs was in recognition of the additional costs of recruiting and retaining students from National Access Plan target groups, including students with disabilities. This enables all HEIs to have an access infrastructure, including disability support services, in place that provides for the pre-entry and post-entry work required to support students from target groups access and successfully complete higher education.

Persons in the protection process (asylum and subsidiary protection) or leave to remain process are not eligible to access the statutory based SUSI grant scheme. However, the administratively based Student Support Scheme provides supports along similar lines to the SUSI grant scheme and is available to persons in the asylum, subsidiary protection or leave to remain process.

Budget 2021 provided for enhanced postgraduate supports from the 2021/22 academic year including the fee grant amount rising from €2,000 to €3,500 and the income threshold for eligibility for these grants increasing from €31,500, now €54,240. This is an initial step in meeting part of the Government’s commitments regarding SUSI grant support.

Apart from the student grant and dedicated access supports it is important to note the range of additional supports which have been put in place for students as part of Budget 2021 and as part of the Government's COVID response last year.

My Department is committed to the continued the roll-out of supports for students and targeted initiatives to support delivery of the vision and targets within the National Access Plan.

The level of funding available in the Student Assistance Fund for 2020 was doubled;

- €1.9m in the form of a once-off COVID-19 contingency fund to enable HEIs deliver local COVID-19 responses to support disadvantaged students;

- The level of funding for the 1916 Bursary Fund (also known as PATH 2) increased to €5 million per annum, which will provide an additional 200 bursaries, bringing the total number for 2021 to 1,000 bursaries for the most disadvantaged students in the country;

- An additional €20 million in funding for SUSI in 2021 to cover increased applications to the scheme;

- €6 million allocated to enhance SUSI support for postgraduates;

- €15 million scheme to support access to laptops and digital devices;

- €50 million to provide financial assistance to full time third level students in recognition of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on this group. This funding will offer financial assistance to all EU full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students attending publicly funded Higher Education Institutions (HEI).

- €300,000 has been secured through the Dormant Accounts Fund for targeted supports to address the implications of COVID-19 on Traveller participation in higher education in 2021.

Fostering Inclusion is one of the three core pillars around which the Further Education and Training Strategy (FET) 2020-2024 is built. The FET sector is committed to increasing levels of inclusion through the provision of high quality, more accessible and flexible education and training programmes and supports suited to the identified needs of individuals, including persons with a disability, members of the Traveller and Roma communities, migrants and the unemployed, with the aim of enabling every citizen to participate fully in society.

SOLAS, working closely with my Department, has established multi-annual strategic performance agreements with the 16 ETBs. These agreements place a clear emphasis on inclusion for all. In terms of promoting equity, one of the most significant features of these new agreements is the setting of quantitative targets for inclusion of priority cohorts, which are derived from a combination of specifically identified local needs and government strategies and action plans, as well as the relevant EU strategies and policies. The channelling of specific programme budgets and/or resources towards provision for a particular priority group or cohort would be a decision to be made by individual ETBs.

Under the Action Plan for Apprenticeship 2021-2025 which was published in April the impacts of, and outcomes from, existing access to apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programmes as well as other interventions across the sector will be examined to provide an evidence base for best practice and future interventions to deliver an apprentice population which better reflects the general population.

Question No. 381 answered with Question No. 366.
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