Public Consultation on the Tertiary Education Strategy

The tertiary education and research system is fundamental to Ireland’s social and economic progress. By providing us with skills, knowledge, and innovation the tertiary education system plays a key role in:

• Growing the economy,
• Advancing our society and
• creating better opportunities for everyone.

It also helps us to deal with the challenges we face now, and the ones we will face in the future, such as competitiveness, climate change and digital transformation.

The Minister is preparing a Tertiary Education Strategy to identify the objectives and outputs of:

• further education and training,
• higher education, and
• research and innovation.

The Tertiary Education Strategy will strengthen and support the further education, higher education, research and innovation system through the creation of a coherent vision and objectives.

The Strategy will adopt an integrated approach, taking full account of the linkages between further and higher education and research through a set of strategic actions.

Your insights and inputs can shape the future direction of the tertiary education and research system and we need your perspectives to ensure that our plans are well aligned with the evolving needs of our sectors.

We invite you to share your views to help us to prepare the Tertiary Education Strategy.

We have prepared six questions to stimulate consultation responses. Responses can be viewed through the consultation survey. Consultation questions are also accessible as a pdf.

Please submit your views online through the following link.

Please note that the deadline for submissions is Friday, 19 September 2025.

Any questions relating to this public consultation can be directed to strategicpolicyunit@dfheris.gov.ie.

Any personal information submitted to the Department will be treated strictly in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018.

Please note that information submitted can be sought under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and may be released in response to an FOI request. Any personal information included in this survey will be redacted prior to release. If you have any queries in relation to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Disclosure policy, please email foi@dfheris.gov.ie.

Use of information provided

The information collected through the Tertiary Education Strategy public consultation survey will be used to inform Strategy development. The provision of personal data such as name and occupation will help the Department to understand who is participating in the public consultation on the Tertiary Education Strategy.

Privacy

Any personal information submitted to the Department will be treated strictly in accordance with the General Data Protection Regulation 2016/679 and the Data Protection Act 2018. Please note that information submitted can be sought under the Freedom of Information Act 2014 and may be released in response to an FOI request. Any personal information included in this consultation survey will be redacted prior to release. If you have any queries in relation to the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Disclosure policy, please email foi@dfheris.gov.ie.

The full Privacy Notice can be assessed and is available in the attached document.

The Department's Data Protection Policy is available to read here.