“Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has confirmed that the thousands of extra college places introduced this year because of the pandemic are here to stay. Harris will also introduce 2,000 additional higher education places this year ‘to deal with the demographic pressures’ that the sector is currently facing …” (more)
[Cormac Watson, University Times, 15 January]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures and supports that have been put in place for third-level students with dyslexia and other conditions that secured them supports at second level; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 15 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he will provide additional information on the €20 million in budget 2021 for SUSI that will see the funding returned to 2019 levels; the projections on demand upon which this is based; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 15 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the measures he has taken to urge universities to compensate postgraduate students for the move to online teaching and the much-reduced student experience promised in their prospectus and marketing campaigns; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 15 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if all public institutes of higher education have now agreed to provide refunds for unused accommodation; the actions his Department has taken to help students again battling with private accommodation providers for refunds; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 15 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if universities are in a position to assure students applying from Northern Ireland that under no circumstance will they be charged international fees; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 15 December]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the economic evaluation of the funding options presented in the Report of the Expert Group on Future Funding for Higher Education by the European Commission DG Reform Programme; when he expects the evaluation to be complete; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 8 December]
“The country’s seven universities will run an estimated combined deficit of €102 million between last year and this year, the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education has heard. The Provost of Trinity College, Dr Patrick Prendergast, told politicians that the Covid-19 crisis has had a severe impact on an already seriously underfunded sector …” (more)
[Emma O Kelly, RTÉ News, 3 November]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the number of part-time students currently enrolled or the most current figures available; the number of part-time third level students, by county, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 26 November]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the transfer of research and innovation components from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; when the transfer will be complete; if the units as they currently exist in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will be transferred in their entirety; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 19 November]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated surplus of the National Training Fund for 2020; the total surplus of the National Training Fund at the end of 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 19 November]
“Students have expressed feelings of having been “misled into securing accommodation” despite the move of most learning online in a new report published by Sinn Fein. Sinn Féin Higher and Further Education Spokesperson Rose Conway-Walsh has published the results of the Sinn Féin Student Accommodation Survey 2020 …” (more)
[Connie Roughan, Trinity News, 21 November]
“Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael): I very much welcome the opportunity to update the House on some of the work of the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science just under five months on from its creation and the formation of the Government. I very much appreciate the support and interest from all sides of the Oireachtas for a new stand-alone Department to place a renewed focus on the further and higher education sectors and enhance and develop research and innovation …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 19 November]
“Minister for Further Education Simon Harris said the state’s current policy on student accommodation and housing is ‘not working’ when speaking to the Oireachtas Education Committee to discuss the establishment of the Munster Technological University (MTU) …” (more)
[Iseult O’Callaghan, College Tribune, 17 November]
“Sinn Féin spokesperson on Further and Higher Education, Rose Conway-Walsh TD, has today published the results of a student accommodation survey that highlights how student renters have paid thousands of euro in advance to secure accommodation they are now prevented from using …” (more)
[Rose Conway-Walsh, Sinn Féin, 29 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No 236 of 14 October 2020, if Dublin Technical University currently holds no debt; if he plans to create a borrowing framework for the technological universities to allow them to borrow in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the mechanisms he has explored to ensure students in both on-campus and off-campus accommodation will receive full refunds for unused accommodation; the institutes of higher education and accommodation providers that have agreed to give refunds; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more, and even more)
[Dáil debates, 20 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason no specific plan was put in place to address the disadvantage faced by the 8,000 students who sat the leaving certificate prior to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 October]
“Five of the State’s seven universities have confirmed they will refund students who leave their third-level accommodation, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said …” (more)
[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 21 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his Department is monitoring the debt levels of publicly funded universities and technological universities; the total amount and by each publicly funded university and technological university; the anticipated impact on levels of debt held by universities due to Covid-related disruption to the 2019-20 and 2020-21 academic years; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 14 October]
