Engineers Ireland, the representative body of the engineering profession on the island of Ireland, has welcomed the proposed Queen’s University Belfast initiative of offering students taking up courses in science, maths, technology and engineering an annual £1,000 bursary to encourage a greater uptake of these courses.

The Director General of Engineers Ireland, John Power, said that similar or related types of initiatives should also be strongly considered in third level colleges in the Republic.

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He stated: "For a number of years, Engineers Ireland has campaigned for initiatives to encourage a greater uptake of science and engineering courses at third level. We have previously suggested bonus CAO points for maths in the Leaving Cert. to encourage students to take up the subject and our comments in the wake of the recent Leaving Cert results regarding this initiative were positively received by Minister Hanafin."

Mr Power also pointed out that a recent study undertaken by Engineers Ireland and the Irish Academy of Engineers, called Engineering a Knowledge Island 2020, found that if the island of Ireland is to become a top five global economy by 2020 there needs to be a year on year increase of 7% in the number of engineering graduates.

(CL/SP)