Third-level colleges will increasingly have to recruit their students from Asia and the Far East as the number of Irish students starts to plummet, a top education official predicted yesterday.
Mr John Dennehy, secretary-general of the Department of Education, said the Government was encouraging colleges to develop links overseas so it could recruit these students.
He said if they could replace the falling numbers of Irish students and also provide colleges with a reasonable income stream, it would be very welcome. He said non-EU students paid full economic rates to attend courses in the Republic.
A number of universities and institutes of technology were already getting their students from Asia and elsewhere. "This will become more of a feature in coming years," he said.
He was speaking during a wide-ranging presentation before the Public Accounts Committee yesterday.
Mr Dennehy, the most senior education official in the State, said points requirements would ease on a number of courses because of the falls in population. However, the Government would continue to encourage as many students to enter third-level education as possible.
He was responding to a question from Mr Ned O'Keeffe TD, who said he was worried that colleges in regional centres would be among the first affected by the falls in the youth population.
Mr O'Keeffe said if these colleges were affected, their classes might have fewer than 10 students in them and this was not sustainable in the long run.
Mr Dennehy also discussed the issue of school buildings. He said the Department was concerned that a small number of primary-school managers were not maintaining their schools properly.
The Department dispensed a devolved grant to schools for maintenance and it was important that value for money be obtained. He said regular small-scale maintenance by school management authorities was important, although he admitted this would not address serious dilapidation.
He was responding to questions about a regular list produced by the teachers' union, the INTO, which names sub-standard schools.
"It is easy enough to draw up a hit list of schools," he said.
However, it should also be acknowledged that the Department had initiated a huge number of school building projects in the last three years, he added.
Mr Dennehy was also questioned about the problem of drop outs or "non-retention" at third-level.
He said the Department had asked the Educational Research Centre at St Patrick's in Drumcondra, Dublin, to do a "qualitative" study on the reasons behind this trend.
He said the Department believed that in many cases students dropped out or transferred from their original course because it was not suitable.
He said if they got more advice this might not happen so often.
He also said that the Department had instructed third-level colleges to appoint a retention officer to find new ways to combat high drop-out rates.