Galway Bay m newsroom - Funding for Galway's third level institutions will be linked to performance under new plans from the Department of Education.
The new measures will reward third level colleges for innovation and success in key areas.
Financial penalties will be enforced for misconduct such as unauthorized staff payments, misleading reports or filing late accounts.
The Department of Education will provide Galway's third level institutions with increased funding for the delivery of STEM courses.
STEM courses, which are science, technology, engineering and maths courses, are more expensive to run and therefore will be incentivised in the new government plans.
Galway colleges will also receive money to allow more students from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend third level as part of a national strategy to narrow the class gap in higher education.
NUI Galway and GMIT will benefit from an innovation fund should they excel in key areas.
The 60/40 funding split between ITs and universities will be removed in favour of annually adjusted funding based on how many students are in each sector.
The new plans also introduce penalties for clear breaches of governance such as false financial reporting, failure to provide accurate information to relevant authorities or wilful breach of governance codes.
