To ask the Minister for the Economy to detail (i) any funding allocated to support students, ordinarily resident in the Republic of Ireland, studying at Northern Ireland higher education institutions, in each of the last five years; (ii) the number of such students that were supported in each year; (iii) the proportion of that funding that was provided through the teaching grant, or other departmental funding streams; and (iv) whether the Department has undertaken any assessment of the economic return to Northern Ireland from that expenditure.

My Department does not hold complete information on funding allocated to support students studying here who are ordinarily resident in the south of Ireland.

Necessary data on student support finance provided by Student Finance NI (SFNI) is held by the Student Loans Company. My Department has requested this information and it will be placed in the Assembly Library when available.

The Department also funds postgraduate research students through the Postgraduate Researcher (PGR) Scheme, formerly known as the Postgraduate Award Scheme. The Scheme funds the equivalent of 729 PhD studentships each year. Over the last five complete academic years, total Scheme funding was approximately £91.3 million, of which approximately £3.9 million related to students ordinarily resident in the south of Ireland.

For the purposes of part (iii), this funding is a research funding stream rather than teaching grant, and the approximate amount attributable to students ordinarily resident in the south of Ireland is shown separately in the table below.

Further in relation to part (iii), teaching grant is provided to higher education institutions in respect of fundable students generally, including eligible students ordinarily resident in the south of Ireland where they are fundable. However, teaching grant is not allocated, recorded or disaggregated by student domicile. It is therefore not possible to identify a teaching grant amount, or calculate a proportion of teaching grant or other departmental institutional funding, specifically attributable to students ordinarily resident in the south of Ireland.

In relation to part (iv), the Department has not undertaken a specific assessment of the economic return from this expenditure. More generally, students studying at local higher education institutions contribute to the economy through their spending, support the sustainability of those institutions, and may contribute to the skills base and economy.