Ninth Level Ireland

“The journal Times Higher Education first ran an article on this phenomenon in 2005, in which it referred to research that had been undertaken on it. Academic staff in universities where this new model was being tried out were interviewed, and invariably hostile; they felt that the environment in which they were being asked to work was ‘a little like being in a call centre’, and that it was ‘like moving from a grown-up atmosphere to a classroom atmosphere.’ The authors of the article concluded that for open plan arrangements to work in universities a whole new attitude to and etiquette for academic work would have to be adopted. More recently the same journal took a closer look at an experiment with open plan arrangements in Sussex University. The intention behind this experiment was to see whether the office lay-out and use would encourage greater collaboration and interdisciplinarity; but the response of staff working there suggested it did not achieve that effect …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 21 November]

“A modern British university is no place to think. That’s the sad conclusion I came to after ten years struggling in my secure academic job. What had at first seemed a magnificent opportunity and a great privilege had become a burden. And I couldn’t stand it any more. Instead of reading and writing and thinking and arguing and carrying out experiments to try to understand the nature of the human mind or the mysteries of the universe, I was filling in forms, attending meetings and marking ever higher piles of increasingly pedestrian essays. Just sometimes I had the joy of knowing I’d inspired my students, or helped them design exciting experiments. Just sometimes I even did some research myself. But mostly I seemed to be wasting my brain away. So I left. The job I abandoned was that of reader in psychology at a large new university, where I taught everything from huge classes in introductory psychology and statistics to seminars on consciousness …” (more)

[Susan Blackmore, Intelligent Life, 24 October]

“Former EU commissioner Peter Sutherland has emerged as a candidate to chair the Government’s forthcoming National Strategy on Higher Education. Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe is said to be ‘open-minded’’ about Mr Sutherland’s appointment. But any move to appoint Mr Sutherland could be resisted by some in Fianna Fáil because of his former links with Fine Gael. Mr Sutherland’s appointment is favoured by several influential figures in higher education. But one well-placed source said it would be ‘wrong to portray Mr Sutherland as a front-runner, as he is one of several names in the frame’. The Cabinet is due to make the appointment and endorse the terms of reference for the strategy shortly …” (more)

[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 20 November]

“Measures to encourage more students to do part of their study abroad are to be considered by the Higher Education Authority, a conference has been told. Michael Kelly, chairman of the policy and funding body for third- level education, said he would like to see more students avail of opportunities provided by schemes such as Erasmus. He was speaking in Dublin yesterday at a conference on encouraging mobility in education. Some 3,000 students come here from abroad every year while about 1,800 Irish students go abroad. A further 200 third-level staff in Ireland also take part in the programme …” (more)

[Alison Healy, Irish Times, 20 November]

“A decision by an Australian judge has bolstered academics’ claims to the money made from their inventions, according to a leading lawyer. The judge in a dispute between the University of Western Australia (UWA) and one of its former professors has challenged the assumption that universities have ownership of inventions developed as part of their employees’ research activities. Sitting in the Australian Federal Court, Justice French ruled that this assumption is not necessarily correct where the academic has a contractual duty to carry out research, but has no contractual ‘duty to invent’. In London, Adrian Toutoungi, who is intellectual property expert at law firm Eversheds, said that while British courts are not obliged to follow Australian case law, they were in fact likely to be influenced by the judgment …” (more)

[Melanie Newman, Times Higher Education, 20 November]

“The Research Information Network, a national research and policy unit in the UK which looks at the information needs and practices of researchers, has produced what it calls a Guidance Booklet. The title is Ensuring a bright future for research libraries: a guide for vice-chancellors and senior institutional managers. The audience is senior university administrators …” (more)

[Lorcan Dempsey's weblog, 19 November]

“Degrees are likely to become a ‘devalued currency’ because colleges are awarding too many honours qualifications, an expert has predicted. He says that if ‘grade inflation’ continues at its current level, all graduates from the university sector will have first class honours by 2030. Psychology lecturer Martin O’Grady warned that employers would eventually turn their backs on the grading system and conduct their own tests to gauge the competence of potential employees …” (more)

[Fergus Black, Independent, 18 November]

“One of the refreshing aspects of my university, DCU, is that it makes few distinctions between those employees who have academic tasks, and those whose work is administrative, secretarial, technical or professional. There is no hierarchy of decision-making that places the latter groups in a less favourable position. This is significant, because in every other university I know there appears to be open or subdued warfare between academics and others. I recently attended a meeting of one of the learned academic bodies and was astounded to hear a very senior professor from another institution argue that administrators were a cancer in the academic system, but I was even more alarmed when that statement was greeted with mutters of approval by many others present …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 18 November]

“Students at the University of Limerick, angry at the increase in registration fees as well as the fear that university fees might be re-introduced, obstruct Arts, Sports and Tourism minister Martin Cullen as he arrives at the university to open the Irish Chamber Orchestra building …” (more)

[The Limerick Blogger, 17 November]

“A couple of years ago on this blog (yes, it has been that long!) we referred to the paper by Woodfield, Jessop and McMillan on student attendance levels at university. Interestingly, in the forthcoming (December) issue of Studies in Higher Education there’s an article which uses a much larger and broader data set of student attendance at class and attainment (in terms of grades obtained in modules). This latest work is from Loretta Newman-Ford and colleagues at the University of Glamorgan which, as we also reported in this blog (don’t we have our ‘fingers on the pulse’?), uses an electronic fob device to record student attendance, allowing registers to be compiled automatically. This means that compiling data from 22 first year modules across the entire academic year and correlating it with student performance is relatively straightforward …” (more)

[Summa cum laude, 17 November]

“Universities in several European countries are failing to meet the social and economic demands of complex modern economies, says a new report from a Brussels-based think tank that surveyed the higher-education systems of 17 nations, including the United States. The nations in the study, by the Lisbon Council for Economic Competitiveness and Social Renewal, are among the 30 member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The report, ‘University Systems Ranking: Citizens and Society in the Age of Knowledge’, ranks the higher-education systems based on criteria including levels of participation in postsecondary education and a country’s share of foreign students …” (more)

[Chronicle, 17 November]

“We don’t hear many good-news stories in these days of doom and gloom; but today’s official opening of the Irish Chamber Orchestra’s new building, on the campus of the University of Limerick (UL), is putting smiles on lots of faces. Designed by Project Architects in collaboration with specialist acousticians AWN Consulting, the gleaming new block on the college’s north campus incorporates a state-of-the-art rehearsal room, an instrument storeroom and a musicians’ common room as well as office accommodation for the orchestra’s administrative team …” (more)

[Arminta Wallace, Irish Times, 17 November]

“In his book The Uses of the University the former Chancellor of the University of California at Berkeley, Clark Kerr, suggested that a university President has three key tasks which his or her main stakeholders will expect to see achieved: ‘sex for the students, athletics for the alumni, and parking for the faculty.’ Only the last of these, he suggested, presented a problem. In fact, another bon mot also attributed to him is that a university is ‘a series of individual faculty entrepreneurs held together by a common grievance over car parking’ …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 16 November]

“Universities face major changes, from scrapping the traditional academic year to throwing out the current degree grading system, senior academics say. More support is needed for part-time students and contracts for academic staff must also be more flexible. The proposals are set out in a series of papers published as part of a review of the higher education sector, ordered by Universities Secretary John Denham. The review comes ahead of an analysis of tuition fees due out next year …” (more)

[BBC News, 12 November]

“The University of Limerick has received planning permission from Clare County Council to build its €12M medical school across the Shannon from the main campus. It is hoped that construction will begin on site next summer with work completed by September 2010. The four storey building, by the Dublin-based firm, Grafton Architects, has a total floor area of 4,295 square metres and will include a landscaped garden and a piazza. The building will consist of clinical skills practice labs, seminar rooms, lecture areas, a cafeteria and offices …” (more)

[Archiseek, 13 November]

“Newcastle University has excluded 49 students from China and one from Taiwan after their documents were found to be fake. The university is now urging others to watch out for high-quality forged certificates that it believes may be circulating widely. University officials became suspicious when some of the students, who started undergraduate and postgraduate courses last month, failed English language assessments, compulsory for arriving students who do not speak English as their first language …” (more)

[Anthea Lipsett, Guardian, 12 November]

“A High Court challenge by an internet-based third level college to gain official recognition from authorities has been struck out, writes Tim Healy. Warnborough College had sought leave to judicially review a decision by the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (HETAC) not to agree quality assurance procedures with the college …” (more)

[Independent, 11 November]

“Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe was yesterday accused by the president of a leading third-level institution of not trusting universities. Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, of Dublin City University, said it was also clear the Minister, as well as other key politicians, felt there was a significant under-performance in the institutions. ‘Part of the problem is that the role that universities must play in a knowledge society is different from what it would have been when Ireland was much poorer,’’ said Prof von Prondzynski …” (more)

[Michael O’Regan, Irish Times, 11 November]

“Sinn Féin has recently implemented a transformation of the party’s structures in Universities across Cuige Uladh. This follows a summer long ‘think tank’ by young Sinn Féin members who had recently passed through the party’s college structures. These meetings resulted in the formation of a new University Officer Board …” (more)

[Ógra Shinn Féin Blog, 11 November]

“Members of the Irish Federation of University Teachers have voted to accept the terms of the National Pay Agreement. The deal, which was the subject of a postal ballot of all IFUT members, had been recommended for acceptance by the IFUT Executive …” (more)

[IFUT Blog, 11 November]