Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 19 October 2023
152. Deputy Pádraig O'Sullivan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science if he will provide supports for non-State funded PhD students and if he will move to have their employment status recognised; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45796/23]
View answerIn November 2022, I appointed Dr Andrea Johnson and Mr David Cagney to undertake an independent National Review of State Supports for PhD Researchers. This is the first time that State supports for PhD students have been considered holistically in this manner.
Of the approximately 10,000 PhD students currently enrolled across the higher education sector, 4,000 undertake their studies using private funding. The Deputy will appreciate that these students have decided to enroll in PhD programmes supported by the private funding available to them.
Under Budget 2024, I secured increased funding for the PhD stipends provided by the competitive funding agencies under my Department’s aegis, i.e. Science Foundation Ireland and the Irish Research Council, to bring the stipend to €22,000 for their roughly 3,000 awardees. This builds on the increase that I secured in Budget 2023, and demonstrates strong and substantial progress on this issue.
Because of their particular complexity, the following elements of the National Review of State Supports for PhD Researchers required further analysis by the Co-Chairs:
• Consistency and equity of approaches in how PhD researchers are supported, i.e. those coming from under-represented groups;
• The status of a PhD researcher, i.e. classification as either a student or an employee.
The Co-Chairs have now submitted their final review report and this is currently being considered by my officials and myself. An 18-month work programme to implement appropriate recommendations is under development.
