Unified tertiary system

This is a policy to allow further education and training, higher education, and research and innovation to work closer together.

The vision for a more unified system is to:

• meet the different needs of all learners in their search for knowledge and skills, throughout their lives
• help the sectors to work together to deal with the future knowledge and skills needs of our learners and researchers, our economy, and our society

To achieve this vision, the policy aims to:

• offer a wide range of more joined-up learning and development opportunities to learners, researchers and innovators
• grow equality, diversity and inclusion across the system
• help the system adapt to change
• create more regional links
• supply the skills, knowledge and talent needed by individuals, the economy and society

A more unified further and higher education and research system can be more useful for students, learners and researchers. It can also respond better to changes in the economy, industry and wider society.

We recognise the strengths of the existing sectors in the tertiary education system. So the intention of this policy is to enhance those individual strengths and develop a more collaborative system, in which the sectors can work more closely together.

We intend that a more unified tertiary education system will be an important part of the Strategy for Tertiary Education, set out in the Higher Education Authority Act 2022.

We spoke with Department colleagues and the Department’s agencies, supported by the DFHERIS Statement of Strategy. From this, we decided on a first set of actions and outcomes to meet the policy’s objectives.

The policy platform paper sets out these actions and outcomes. The spotlight actions paper highlights the actions that started in 2022. The Department is leading these with our agencies.

We plan to:

• publish a new set of actions every year
• base them more and more on feedback from our sectors and stakeholders
• publish frequent updates on their progress

In early 2023, we and our agencies will:

• review the contributions to the consultation
• progress existing actions and develop new actions
• continue this conversation with sectors and stakeholders

In early 2022, we started working intensively across the Department and with our agencies to identify the outcomes and actions that can lead to a more unified further education and training, higher education, and research and innovation system.

This work led to us publishing our policy platform paper and launching a public consultation on 25 May 2022. The platform paper and consultation let sectors and stakeholders share their thoughts and suggestions for a more unified system. The public consultation ended on 26 August 2022. We also set up a learner group discussion session, to make sure that we included learners’ opinions in the consultation.

On 6 December 2022, the Minister published a consultation report. This set out the:

• themes that came through the consultation submissions
• Department’s response to those themes
• next steps in developing the policy

The Department created in 2023 the Regional Dialogue Initiative in response to inputs from the sector. These inputs highlighted how a unified tertiary sector in regions can contribute to achieving both Department and wider government policy priorities.

Over the course of 6 meetings held in regions around the country, 29 DFHERIS officials met with 142 representatives from across the tertiary sector.

The Regional Dialogue Synopsis Report, published in December 2023, pulls together the information, thoughts, and ideas that were shared during the meetings.

The report will play a key role in the development of a Tertiary Education Strategy, which the Department is currently progressing.

BH Associates, comprising Dr Ellen Hazelkorn and Mr Tom Boland, are working with the Department to support its work in the development of a more unified tertiary system. As part of that engagement, BH Associates has authored a series of discussion papers.

The purpose of the papers is to set out questions, generate ideas, and serve as a starting point for discussions between DFHERIS and its stakeholders.

The first paper sets out the key opportunities and challenges in developing a more unified tertiary system. The other papers in the series will focus on regional innovation and sustainability, governance, and a learner-centred approach to tertiary education.

These papers will play an important role in the Department’s work to develop a Tertiary Education Strategy.

These papers do not represent the Department’s view or policy position.