From Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science
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Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris today welcomed the fourth in a series of dialogue meetings between senior department officials and institutional leaders aimed at driving stronger regional collaboration on some of the major challenges facing the country.
Today’s meeting for Kilkenny, Carlow, Waterford, Wexford is the fourth of six dialogue meetings taking place around the country over the recent and coming weeks, with department officials engaging with leaders from the further and higher education, research and innovation sectors on their role in delivering on key government strategies including regional rebalancing, housing, health, climate and enterprise.
Speaking today ahead of the meeting at South East Technological University (SETU) campus in Waterford, Minister Harris said:
“I warmly welcome the fourth Regional Dialogue meeting taking place today and I want to acknowledge the tremendous effort, support and collaboration of the institutions in the region in convening and preparing for today’s engagement.
“The Regional Dialogue Initiative is an opportunity to listen to each other and better understand how we can expand and deepen the transformative impact the tertiary system has on the lives of individuals, on the vibrancy of our communities and the health of our economy.
“We want to understand more about what our sectors can do together to make their regions stronger, and that means focusing on the things that matter most right now: inclusive societies, better regional economies, and adapting to climate change.
“We know that the further and higher education, research and innovation sectors are already doing incredible work in these areas, but we want to discover more about the ambitions and plans of our sectors, the challenges that are there and how we can all work together to develop ideas and actions that will work for the region.”
Today’s Southern regional dialogue meeting will see the department engaging with institutional leaders representing SETU, Waterford Wexford ETB, Kilkenny Carlow ETB, Laois Offaly ETB and SETU’s Technology Gateway research centres.
Representatives of SOLAS, SFI, the National Tertiary Office, Skillnet, the Southern Regional Assembly, the Ireland South East Development Office, the South East Regional Skills Forum, the IDA, Enterprise Ireland, the High Performance Building Alliance and Ire Well Pallets will also be in attendance.
The Regional Dialogue Initiative was set up by the department in response to inputs from the sector highlighting how a unified tertiary sector in regions can contribute to achieving both department and wider government policy priorities.
The six dialogue meetings taking place in regions around the country over the recent and coming weeks are exploring synergies between further education and training, higher education and research, and bring together the leadership and expertise necessary to enable wider economic, social and environmental progress across the regions.
The dialogue and information sharing gained through these dialogues will also form the basis for the development of a Tertiary Education Strategy provided for under the Higher Education Authority Act 2022.
As part of the response to feedback gathered in the Public Consultation, and based on the premise of two-way high-level dialogue, the Regional Dialogue Initiative has been created by DFHERIS to enable regions to develop and progress actions to achieve policy objectives of both DFHERIS and the wider government.
The dialogue will be between DFHERIS and regional HE, FET, and R&I sector leaders, and other key stakeholders meeting together to discuss a series of agreed thematic agenda items focussed on the progression of a more unified tertiary system aligned with the achievement of departmental and wider government priorities.
By opening up dialogue at a regional level DFHERIS is seeking to:
Dialogue and information sharing between DFHERIS and stakeholders will provide a strong foundation for the development of the Tertiary Education Strategy as provided for in the Higher Education Authority Act 2022.
The department is developing a policy vision to progress a more unified tertiary education and research system, details of which were noted by Government on 24 May 2022.
The vision is for a well-functioning, unified tertiary system for knowledge and skills, composed of complementary further education and training, higher education and research and innovation sectors, characterised by: