Sorca Clarke
Question:419. Deputy Sorca Clarke asked the Minister for Education the total number of places in each master's degree in post primary teaching per public university in Ireland. [11957/24]
View answerWednesday, 20 March 2024
Questions (419)
Written answers
There are 11 State-funded higher education institutions (HEIs) providing post-primary initial teacher education (ITE) in Ireland.
These are:
• DCU Institute of Education
• Maynooth University
• Mary Immaculate College
• University College Dublin
• University of Galway
• University College Cork
• University of Limerick
• Trinity College Dublin
• Technological University of the Shannon
• Atlantic Technological University - which now includes Galway Mayo Institute of Technology and St Angela’s College, Sligo
• The National College of Art and Design
These institutions provide a range of concurrent and consecutive programmes.
At post-primary level, higher education institutions determine the level of places on their programmes in accordance with their own available resources and arrangements and so my Department does not hold data on the number of approved places for post-primary, in the way that it would for primary.
While no caps or targets on numbers are usually set for programmes, providers have been encouraged in recent years to develop programmes in a way that is mindful of system need. This has included the development of additional four-year concurrent programmes for subjects such as Irish and modern foreign languages.
In terms of overall enrolments on ITE programmes, 2022/23 is the most recent year for which confirmed data is available. In that year there were some 6,000 students enrolled on post-primary programmes across the State-funded sector, with some 1,800 of these enrolled on postgraduate programmes.