Third level colleges ‘will have to compete for cash’

THIRD level colleges will have to carry out major internal reform and compete with each other to receive extra State funding, Education Minister Mary Hanafin announced yesterday.

In the first detailed government response to an OECD review of Irish third level education, she outlined agreement to a number of key elements of their report published last autumn. But the minister again ruled out the return of tuition fees for undergraduate students.

One of her key announcements was the Government’s agreement to set up a Strategic Innovation Fund to promote and support reform in universities and institutes of technology.