Welcome to the first edition of Irish Universities Association Bulletin – May 2024!
In this edition we focus on our sectoral EU Election manifesto. We are asking political parties and candidates to commit their support to three key objectives.
We also have updates on cross-sectoral projects including Recognition of Prior Learning, StudentSurveyIE and MicroCreds.
Our top three priorities for the EU Election.
It is critically important that the role of Irish higher education and research is strengthened as the EU moves into its next governance cycle. In that context;
We urge all political parties and candidates for election to support three key objectives:
- Push for the expansion of FP10, the next EU Research Fund (2027+). The FP10 fund should be ring-fenced, with a particular focus on underpinning the Pillar 1 programme that funds discovery research.
- Secure a significant increase in Erasmus+ programme funding, to enable more Irish students to study abroad as part of their degree.
- Step up competitive funding for the European Universities Initiative which enables Irish universities to develop pan-European teaching and research alliances.
Partnership/Project Updates
RPL in the news…
‘How the university of life can lead to serious academic credentials?’ RPL (Recognition of prior learning) published a very informative article in The Irish Times last week, breaking down how RPL really works.
StudentSurvey.ie fallow year explained…
StudentSurvey.ie has been capturing the student voice for the last 10 years. Now the survey is taking a pause and is undergoing a redesign to re-emphasise the central role of the student perspective to direct positive change in higher education. Watch the video of the four project partners as they talk about the ‘pause’ and future plans for the survey.
MicroCreds Subsidy
In March Higher Education Authority and Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science awarded €3.4m to the MicroCreds Project. The funding aims to make lifelong learning more accessible through learner fee subsidies of up to 80% on over 300 courses delivered by MicroCreds partner universities which aim to address critical skills needs for enterprise.
Published on Monday in the Irish Times, Nora Trench Bowles, Head of Lifelong Learning and Skills at the IUA, highlighted the impact the learner fee subsidy will have in helping Ireland meet its lifelong learning targets.
We also hear from Fiona Gamble, MicroCreds Project Lead at Trinity College Dublin on the role universities play in helping enterprise to address critical skills gaps.
In case you missed it…
MSCA Doctoral Networks webinar
The Irish Marie Skłodowska-Curie Office hosted a webinar in May on the 2024 MSCA Doctoral Networks call. The webinar was aimed at researchers and staff in Irish-based academic and non-academic organisations, who are interested in the call.
New Horizons in Research and Innovation
This event on April 18th was part of the ‘IUA Future of Ireland’ series. We were joined by keynote speakers Iliana Ivanova, European Commissioner and Dr Deirdre Lillis.