The issue of equitable access to higher education is foremost among my policy priorities. The Agreed Programme for Government, in addition to setting out this Government's commitment to improve the level and quality of participation and achievement at every level of education, contains a clear commitment to expand significantly the number of mature students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds participating in higher education. We must broaden participation in higher education if we are to successfully tackle and break the cycle of disadvantage, open up opportunity and optimise our broader economic and social potential.
The under representation of students from lower socio-economic backgrounds in the higher education system is, regrettably, particularly evident in Ireland and remains unacceptable even though the overall rate of admission to higher education recorded by Clancy was 44% in 1998 as against 25% in 1986. Nowhere is the disparity in participation rates more graphically captured than by the 2001 fourth national survey of access to higher education, which confirmed that in 1998 almost all children from the higher professional group entered higher education whereas only 21%, or one in five, from an unskilled manual worker background entered.
It was against this background that, last autumn, I requested my Department to undertake a review of student support provisions with the objective of ensuring that the benefits of the substantial investment being made in this area by the taxpayer are maximised. While the review is essentially being conducted by officials of my Department, some issues have required the engagement of external expertise. In this connection, the Department commissioned the Economic and Social Research Institute to undertake work to enable it to estimate the cost of the various options which I expect will be identified in accordance with the terms of reference of the review.
In conducting the review, my Department officials are also having regard to international experience, relevant reports and policy documents including the report of the action group on access to third-level education, which was published in July 2001. The action group members, who were representative of a large number of interest groups and the key stakeholders, sought and considered a large number of submissions.
Additional informationI expect that the outcome of the review by my Department officials will provide me with a range of possible options which will seek to ensure that the finite available resources are targeted in a manner which achieves maximum impact from the point of view of equity of access to higher education. In this context, I expect that the review will take account of the fact that, while the broad social and economic benefits of wide participation in higher education underpin the rationale for ongoing public investment in this system, there are also clear economic returns to the individual which raise questions on equity grounds as to how the burden of funding should be shared by those who benefit. I anticipate that the review outcomes will be submitted to me in the very near future and when I have had an opportunity to consider its contents, I will bring the matter to the Cabinet. Following consideration by the Government, I will make a determination in relation to publication and appropriate arrangements for consultation. As I have indicated to the House previously, I am very mindful of the need to avoid, as far as possible, uncertainty for students and their parents. In any event, it is my intention to decide within the coming weeks as to the arrangements and support provisions which will be in place for students for the 2003-04 academic year.