Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Thursday, 16 Oct 1997

Vol. 481 No. 6

Written Answers - Mature Students.

Olivia Mitchell

Ceist:

95 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Education and Science the targets, if any, he has set for the participation of mature students in higher education; and the measures, if any, he proposes to introduce to increase participation. [16573/97]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. Martin)

The report of the Steering Committee on the Future Development of Higher Education recommended that the number of mature full-time entrants into third level education should be progressively increased from 1,000 in 1993-94 to 2,200 by the year 2000. Preliminary data indicate that the intake of mature students at third level in the 1996-97 academic year was in the order of 1,500 which represents significant progress towards meeting the recommendation in the steering committee report.

I am committed to developing initiatives to facilitate this increased participation. A number of measures in recent years have benefited mature students. Improvements have been made in the student support arrangements to extend them to mature students and to enable these students to be assessed on their own means. Mature students also benefit from the free fees initiative and from the provisions allowing tax relief on fees for certain third level courses. There are also special arrangements to enable mature students to train as primary teachers. The Higher Education Authority, in co-operation with third level institutions is promoting the co-ordinated development of a system of modular course structures and related credit transfer arrangements. Such flexibility in course structures has the potential to facilitate access and enable mature and part-time students to study for qualifications while remaining in full-time employment.

In the context of the steering committee report the Higher Education Authority made funding available in 1996 for university initiatives relating to mature students, with the focus on disadvantaged mature students. A sum of £240,000 was allocated for projects such as training of tutors for adult learners, evaluation of foundation courses, provision of community animateurs, development of materials for open and distance learning and access programmes for disadvantaged mature students.

In July I established a joint education/industry task force to improve the supply of technicians for high-technology industries. As a first step, I announced last week an initiative whereby colleges and industry will jointly recruit, educate and train technicians. In seeking applicants for the courses over the next few weeks, the aim is to attract the kind of applicant who might not before have considered a technician career. These applicants might include, for example, mature applicants who may have been out of the workforce for a while and under-employed or unemployed persons. This is a most important initiative for providing a second chance for people to acquire technical qualifications while addressing one of the clear areas where skills are needed in the economy.