(31 October, Dublin) The Irish Universities Association has called on all political parties to commit to a sustained investment in higher education and research. Launching its Manifesto for Future Talent & Innovation, the IUA has urged political parties to secure the future supply of high-skills talent and underpin national competitiveness by making key commitments on the third level sector in the upcoming election.
The IUA, which represents the country’s leading universities is calling an all parties to:
- Honour in full the recent commitments by government to close the €307m annual funding gap for the sector by using the surplus funds from the National Training Fund as well as core exchequer funds.
- Provide enhanced supports for students and improve student-staff ratios.
- Create a €100m per year Research Infrastructure and Talent Development Fund to drive research and innovation.
- Invest €0.5 billion over 5 years through a Green Campus Fund to enable universities to lead by example in carbon reduction emissions across their extensive campus infrastructure and thereby enabling the government to deliver the National Climate Plan targets.
The universities are also calling for a commitment by parties to retain the Dept. of Further, Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science (DFHERIS) as a key enabler of economic success into the future.
Director General of the IUA, Jim Miley, said: “Ireland has among the highest third-level participation rates in the world and our graduates are the country’s greatest renewable resource. Our economic success is directly linked to our reputation for producing world class talent. We are calling on all political parties to pledge their support for our students and to ensure that our universities are adequately resourced to continue to supply the future graduate talent pipeline that is pivotal to FDI investment and job creation.
Investing in research must also be a core objective of the next government. Ireland’s public investment in research, as measured by GBARD (Government Budget Allocation in R & D), at 0.21% of GDP, is less than one-third the EU average of 0.69%. It is critical for political parties to recognise that greater research investment is an absolute prerequisite of future success. The outgoing government has established Research Ireland to spearhead research activity, but it can only succeed if the incoming government provides the necessary levels of investment in both the research infrastructure and personnel.”
The IUA member universities have joined forces on a #InvestInHigherEd campaign with a call on all candidates and political parties in the upcoming election to support the Manifesto priorities.
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Read our Manifesto in detail https://www.iua.ie/elections/
