Higher Education Authority
The Higher Education Authority is the statutory planning and policy development body for higher education and research in Ireland. The HEA has wide advisory powers throughout the whole of the third-level education sector. In addition, it is the funding authority for a number of designated higher education institutions, which include universities, institutes of technology and a number of colleges.
The Mission Statement of the HEA is “To foster the development of a higher education sector which is accessible to all potential students and which is recognised internationally for the high quality of teaching, learning and research and which has the capacity to address the changing needs and challenges in our society”.
The HEA is also the Irish contact point for a number of EU programmes. the most important of which is Erasmus+. As the National Agency for the Erasmus+ Higher Education programme, it is our responsibility to promote and implement the Programme at national level and act as the link between the European Commission and participating organisations at local, regional and national level.
It is our task to:
- provide appropriate information on the Erasmus+ Programme
- administer a fair and transparent selection process for project applications to be funded in Ireland within the Higher Education sector
- monitor and evaluate the implementation of the Programme in Ireland within the Higher Education sector
- provide support to project applicants and participating organisations throughout the project life cycle
- collaborate effectively with the network of all National Agencies and the European Commission
- ensure the visibility of the Programme
- promote the dissemination and exploitation of the results of the Programme at local and national level.