Under the scheme, collaboration between colleges is encouraged as is engagement with relevant industry employers and overseas partners. Indecon found that, with a couple of years to go, the programme was ahead of schedule in terms of a variety of key measures, with more than 400 enterprise partnerships established involving 84 academic establishments and particularly high levels of engagement from the new technical universities.
Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said the findings of the assessment by Indecon, for the Higher Education Authority , were evidence of the increased levels of innovation and flexibility being introduced into higher-level education in order to better address the country’s skills shortages. He said the success of the scheme so far underlined Ireland’s potential to be a leading innovator in the area of educational innovation.
“Ireland is uniquely positioned to become a world leader in educational innovation and the collaboration fostered by HCI Pillar 3 between higher education institutions, local SMEs and global multinationals shows we are on the right path.”