MINISTER FOR Education Batt O’Keeffe said he was stepping up his campaign for improved “value for money’’ in higher education after a cost-cutting plan in one college achieved savings of more than €2 million.
The savings were made at the Cork Institute of Technology following an internal audit by Deloitte, done on a pro-bono basis.
On Wednesday, representatives of all 14 institutes of technology were called to a special meeting at the department where the case for greater savings and the need for more pooling of resources was stressed.
In the coming weeks, university presidents will be asked to attend a similar meeting with senior department officials.
The latest moves will run parallel with a “forensic audit’’ of higher education spending which has been demanded by Mr O’Keeffe. This will be completed by the Comptroller and Auditor General in the autumn.
In a separate development, the Minister has also asked the Higher Education Authority to lead what he called “an urgent and comprehensive efficiency drive across the higher education sector.’’
Work has already started on this review which will examine areas like shared procurement, shared services and greater efficiencies in course provision.
The Minister told the Oireachtas Committee on Education yesterday he wanted to ensure existing levels of funding for higher education and research are being targeted effectively and efficiently.
He said the Strategy Group on Higher Education is examining the overall operational, governance and resourcing framework in the sector.
The group will also look at the need for reorganisation and reconfiguration of roles within the system including rationalisation.
In terms of future funding, he said the third level sector relies disproportionately on exchequer sources of funding and it is appropriate to look to wider means of meeting resource requirements.
The Labour spokesman on education, Ruairí Quinn said there was a perception across the sector that the Department of Education was the “department for schools and teachers” with little engagement in higher education. He said there might be a case for adopting the model used elsewhere where higher education is part of the enterprise department of Government.
Mr O’Keeffe said he favoured the current model. The idea of one department looking after education in a “continuum’’ from primary right through to higher education was a sensible one.
He also said 7,000 additional education places are being made available for unemployed people.
From September, an additional 1,500 Post Leaving Certificate (PLC) places will be made available nationwide.
In the higher education sector, it is expected that at least 2,000 unemployed will be accommodated on full time third level courses starting this autumn.
A number of institutes of technology are providing the unemployed with the opportunity for direct entry onto newly developed Level 6 Certificate programmes.