Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 27 Feb 1997

Vol. 475 No. 6

Adjournment Debate. - Advanced Technology College, Dublin.

Ms Keogh

I thank you for the opportunity to raise the extremely important and urgent matter of the closure of the Advanced Technology College in Merrion Square where 500 students have been left high and dry. This is a failure on the part of the Government to deliver on the promise to regulate the private education sector.

At 3.30 p.m. yesterday the Advanced Technology College went into examinership. Its 500 students were turned away from the college and are effectively locked out. Neither the students, the 20 lecturers nor the other staff has any idea what the future holds. Some of the college students have paid almost £6,000 to study for their qualifications in photography, graphics and computer programming.

Earlier today I spoke to the mother of one of the students. She was extremely angry and distressed. Her son was only three months from his City and Guilds qualification, for which he had put in a considerable amount of hard work over many long hours. What is this young man to do now? Is he likely to reap any benefit from his years of study? Will the Minister ensure that he and his fellow students find alternative education accommodation so that each can qualify in the courses they have been pursuing? Will the Minister accept she could have averted this turn of events if she had kept the promise collectively given by her Cabinet colleagues in the programme, A Government of Renewal, and introduced new laws to regulate private education? In its programme, the rainbow Government spelled out its commitment to provide "Legislation to regulate private education to ensure proper educational standards, consumer protection and employee rights".

Why is there no such legislation from the Minister's Department? Why has the Minister misspent her time setting up new layers of bureaucracy in Irish education rather than honour her commitment three years ago to ensure events such as the examinership of the Advanced Technology College did not happen? Did she learn nothing from the closure of Newman College two years ago? The aspirations in the programme, A Government of Renewal, ring hollow. The Minister has run a coach and four through the students' rights to consumer protection and the rights of the college employees.

I call on the Minister to outline how she proposes to address the immediate needs of the staff and students of the college and how the commitment to regulate the private education sector will be honoured. Of paramount importance in all this are the students standing out in the rain. They must be accommodated and reassured about their future.

Mr. Durkan

I thank you and your office and the Deputy for affording me the opportunity to reply on behalf of the Minister for Education.

I express my sympathy for the position of the students affected by the Advanced Technology College being placed in receivership. It is important that I set out clearly the position of the college.

Under section 20 of the National Council for Educational Awards Act, 1979, the Minister for Education may, with the concurrence of the Minister for Finance, and after consultation with the NCEA, designate an educational institution other than a university as being an institution to which the NCEA Act applies. A number of private commercial colleges have been designed under the NCEA Act.

The Advanced Technology College is a private commercial college. It is not in receipt of Exchequer funding and does not come under the aegis of the Department of Education. It is not a designated institution for the purposes of the National Council for Educational Awards Act, 1979, and none of its courses is validated by the NCEA.

The Minister has established and published a code of standards for the approval of colleges for the purposes of tax relief. The Advanced Technology College is not on the list of approved colleges for the purposes of tax relief. Therefore, the Minister has no role or responsibility in relation to the Advanced Technology College. The position in relation to private commercial colleges, as set out in the White Paper, Charting our Education Future, is that: “In future, such institutions running courses which receive State certification for their awards will be subject to new control regulations”.

It is important to regulate such colleges to provide guarantees for the academic integrity of the courses being offered, the institutional standards and the financial investment of students. The White Paper sets out the parameters of the control procedures which will be the responsibility of Teastas, the Irish National Certification Authority. These regulations will apply only to private commercial colleges which seek State certification for their courses. In this regard the Advanced Technology College does not have State certification.

The Minister established a working group to advise her in relation to the codes of standards to be applied for the purposes of approving private colleges and courses for tax relief purposes under section 6 of the Finance Act, 1995. The group examined the issues of academic and financial bonding and consumer protection and concluded that such provisions should not be incorporated in the codes of standards but should be pursued separately by the Department in association with Teastas and the National Council for Educational Awards.

The Department is considering the first report by Teastas, the national certification authority. The report presents the initial proposals and recommendations of the board on a national qualifications framework and the organisational structure for Teastas. It also seeks to inform the Minister on the progress made during the extensive consultative process and on the complexity of the task. The key issues in relation to the development of a national qualifications framework are quality assurance, accreditation, access, progression and mobility and international recognition.

The Department has commenced discussions with Teastas on the system of approval for institutions seeking State certification. This will encompass issues in relation to financial and academic bonding. The Minister understands that a number of NCEA designated private colleges represented by the Higher Education Colleges Association are developing proposals for academic and financial bonding for consideration in the context of decisions about the future framework.