Higher Education Grants Process Must Be Centralised
The Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA), Tom Boland has called for the process of the payment of higher education grants to be centralised in one, existing, body. Speaking at the Transforming Public Services conference in Croke Park this afternoon, Mr. Boland said that it did not make sense to have over sixty local Councils and Vocational Education Committees trying to administer a scheme and expressed his dismay at “the inability of a significant number of local bodies in the past year to make grant decisions and awards in a timely manner leading to stress for students and costs for higher education institutions.”
Pointing out that this has been a problem since he was a student “over thirty years ago”, he urged reform to ensure that the student would be the central focus of any financial support system.
Tom Boland also outlined how the higher education system in Ireland has changed radically over those three decades and that higher education institutions have responded effectively to those changes, most notably the dramatic growth in numbers from where two in ten eighteen year olds when to college in 1980 compared to seven in ten today. He expressed optimism that the higher education institutions, their management and staff can and will deliver on the substantial reform now required.
ENDS
For further information,
contact Malcolm Byrne,
Head of Communications,
HEA
01 231 7162 or 086 22 37 102
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