asked the Minister for Economic Planning and Development if, with reference to paragraph 4.29 of the recent Government Green Paper regarding the alleged scope for educational institutions to utilise their resources more intensively, he will indicate the evidence on which this implicit under-utilisation is based.
Ceisteanna—Questions . Oral Answers . - Educational Institutions .
17.
: Some Irish educational institutions are already providing special courses for overseas students. This activity, which has been mainly focused on the oil-producer countries, is very welcome in that it can provide additional revenue for the institutions concerned, thus enabling them to improve the services they provide for Irish students. When carried out on a sufficiently large scale this activity would also generate additional employment opportunities as extra staff would have to be recruited.
To date the degree of involvement of Irish educational organisations in this type of activity has been modest. However, the great demand on the part of oil-producer countries for educational services suggests that this is an area of activity to which Irish educational institutions could pay more attention. For example, it might be possible to organise special courses for overseas students during the holiday periods, thus making more efficent use of existing resources, such as lecture theatres and teaching laboratories. Again, for example, it might be possible to restructure the whole sequence of lecture terms in universities. At present, the three terms of an academic year span about 24 or 25 weeks in most cases. It might be possible to have as many as six teaching terms per calendar year by appropriate changes in organisational arrangements. It is for this reason that the Government indicated in the Green Paper at paragraph 4.14 that it was intended to carry out an assessment of the foreign earnings and employment creation potential result-ing from the export of services, including educational services. It is hoped that the results of this study will show up more clearly the scope for additional activity of this type.
: I have two questions. First of all, has some sort of scientific or semi-scientific study been done on the under-utilisation of educational institutions implicit in the Minister's reply? What is the feeling that comes through the paper? On what is it based? The second question is: has the Minister, his officials or any member of the Government had any confrontation with the various educational interests, particularly the managers and owners of the schools, about the possible proposed use of the extended facilities involved?
: The answer to the second question is no, because the paper is published for discussion purposes. The discussions will now follow. In answer to the first question, I am not sure what the Deputy means by a scientific study, but some preliminary work in assessment has been carried out to establish the feasibility of these sort of proposals. As I indicated in my reply, the intention is not to put forward any dogmatic conclusions at this point but to try to give an example of fresh thinking and our willingness to explore new opportunities and possibilities.
: In view of the short university year he mentioned, has the Minister or his Department thought about exploring the possibility in some subjects, though obviously not in all, of running simultanously to a degree, thus saving on buildings, libraries and equipment, though not on teaching staff obviously?
: Oh, no. You would obviously need additional teaching staff. The Deputy says two shifts. In theory it is feasible to have two separate sequences of terms. You can fit two seven-week terms between September and Christmas.
: Was that the point of the Minister's reference to the six terms? They are staggered, 1, 3, 5, 2, 4, 6?
: Yes.
: The House has reached complete agreement.
: I suggest that we continue up to Question No. 20 to facilitate the Minister for the Public Service. This is by agreement. We have time.