Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 October 2022
85. Deputy Gary Gannon asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will provide a full breakdown of the number of PhDs who are funded through State or State-funded bodies (details supplied) and an estimate of privately-funded PhDs registered at Irish universities. [51684/22]
View answerThe HEA has reported a total of 10,013 full time PhD students in 2021/2022.
The most recent Higher Education Expenditure on Research and Development (HERD) Survey 2018/19 carried out by my Department, found that there were 10,044 research students (doctoral and masters by research) in 2018, of which 6,143 (61%) were in receipt of a stipend and 3,901 (39%) were fully self-funded. The majority of PhD students are in receipt of grants from their individual institutions and research funders such as the IRC and SFI.
Other research funders in the national system include, e.g., the Health Research Board and Teagasc. There are also typically a number of PhDs funded through European Programmes and individual Higher Education Institution (HEI) schemes. The Department allocates recurrent funding to the HEA for direct disbursement to HEA designated higher education institutions. The HEA allocates this funding as a block grant to the institutions and as autonomous bodies, the internal disbursement of this funding is a matter for the individual institution.
Of the bodies referred to in the question, my Department has responsibility for SFI and the IRC and can only provide detailed information relating to these bodies. In this regard, as at the 1st of September, there were 2,022 PhD Students directly attributed to active SFI awards and the Irish Research Council is currently supporting 1,143 PhD researchers across its range of funding programmes.
