Ninth Level Ireland

“Academics are guilty of collective hypocrisy because they ‘bleat’ about the erosion of academic freedom while devising new ‘instruments of intellectual tyranny’, a seminar has heard. Roy Harris, emeritus professor of general linguistics at the University of Oxford, said that although individual academics wanted freedom of inquiry, the profession as a whole was structured in a way that prevented it. Speaking at a seminar marking International Academic Freedom Day, Professor Harris argued that the current challenges to academic freedom were threats in which the academic community was complicit. Academics protect their work from external criticism, he said, and specialisation is used as a barrier behind which academics and their colleagues can hide …” (more)

[Rebecca Attwood, Times Higher Education, 28 May]

“Like the rest of higher education, elite universities have grown increasingly reliant on non-tenure-track faculty members. Leaders of those institutions are frequently unaware of the role played by adjuncts or how they have come to make up a larger share of the teaching force. The causes for this shift – while related to money – go far beyond the savings from hiring off the tenure track, and the blame may need to be shared by senior professors and graduate student unions. At the most celebrated institutions of higher education in the United States, the teaching quality of the adjuncts is many times better than that of those on the tenure tack. These are among the conclusions of Off-Track Profs: Nontenured Teachers in Higher Education, being released this week by the MIT Press …” (more)

[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 27 May]

“The economic downturn has hit student job placement programmes at Northern Ireland’s universities. The University of Ulster has said it will allow some students to skip placements because many businesses cannot take on students. Queen’s University said it was prepared to be more flexible about how students complete work placements …” (more)

[Maggie Taggart, BBC News, 27 May]

“Union leaders have urged the government to do more to protect jobs in universities and colleges. The University and College Union (UCU) said universities and colleges had a valuable part to play in helping people develop skills in the recession. But it said staff in the further and higher education sectors still faced the possibility of losing their jobs …” (more)

[BBC News, 27 May]

“Here’s a curiosity: a British university has just changed its name, from (formerly) the University of Teesside to (now) Teesside University. Without any disrespect to the institution in question, which has a number of successes to celebrate, this isn’t much of a name change, and I’m not sure what it is supposed to suggest to its stakeholders. The press release merely tells us that the name change (with a new logo) has given the university the opportunity to remind the world about its recent successes …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 26 May]

“Construction work on UL’s Medical School will begin this year, Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe confirmed this morning. Making the announcement this morning, Minister O’Keeffe said: ‘Building work is expected to get under way shortly on the new multi-million euro 4,000sq/m project’ …” (more)

[Limerick Leader, 27 May]

“Fine Gael City East election candidate Jacqueline Kelly has re-iterated what she described as the pressing need to see WIT upgraded to University status. ‘Shocking figures reveal that only 11.2 per cent of adults in the south east have completed third level education compared to 15.6 per cent nationwide and 21.3 per cent in Dublin,’ said Ms Kelly …” (more)

[Munster Express, 26 May]

“Among the ‘horror stories’ Rosemary Feal has heard: Assistant professors who work in digital media and whose tenure review panels insist on evaluating them by printing out selected pages of their work. ‘It’s like evaluating an Academy Award entry based on 20 film stills,’ said Feal, executive director of the Modern Language Association. Such horror stories abound. Even as the use of electronic media has become common across fields for research and teaching, what is taken for granted among young scholars is still foreign to many of those who sit on tenure and promotion committees …” (more)

[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 26 May]

“As colleges moved into distance education, many questions were raised about how they could serve this new group of students. And colleges responded, with new ideas about online learning resources, academic advising online and so forth. But what about after distance education takes off? At what point does the question shift from what a college does to offer quality online programs to how a college needs to change in its entirety when it reaches a tipping point in enrolments – and at what point does such a change take place? …” (more)

[Scott Jaschik, Inside Higher Ed, 26 May]

“It is a myth to believe that, in higher education, business-facing activity and academic rigour are mutually exclusive. Yet many institutions are being pressured to produce courses that pay little attention to the academic standards that frame the rest of our teaching. My concern is that, in fulfilling the current agenda – producing learning environments and education provision for employers – universities are putting their academic standards aside …” (more)

[Gill Nicholls, Guardian, 26 May]

“A new survey has revealed striking differences between how students view their eating habits and how their parents see them. Almost two-thirds of mothers who took part in a nutritional survey on behalf of a new health-conscious website, called brainfood.ie, considered their child’s diet to be either healthy or very healthy, whereas less than half of students surveyed thought that was the case. The survey asked 550 students and mothers of students preparing for a Leaving Certificate or third-level examination about eating habits …” (more)

[Brian Kavanagh, Irish Times, 26 May]

“Many scientists and other advocates of studies involving human embryonic stem cells had expected the pace of such research to quicken after President Obama signed an order in March easing restrictions on the types of studies eligible for federal funds. But some now are questioning whether proposed new ethical guidelines, which the National Institutes of Health released for comment last month, might have the opposite effect, The Washington Post reported …” (more)

[Charles Huckabee, Chronicle of Higher Education, 25 May]

“The model used for the development of instructional media by the majority of traditional colleges places great restrictions on its quality and economic efficiency. And these limitations are largely a result of the organizational and financial models used. The traditional course development model has its roots in classroom higher education. Three aspects are of particular relevance to this paper: the particular division of labour, the limited economies of scale, and a lack of incentives …” (more)

[Keith Hampson, Higher Education Management, 25 May]

“On the face of it, young offenders in west Belfast and university students in England don’t have much in common. Yet one voluntary organisation is using methods applied to keeping the former group out of trouble to making sure the latter see out their courses. Youth at Risk is working in a pilot project with three English universities – Thames Valley, Bedfordshire and London Metropolitan – all of which have a significant number of students from non-traditional backgrounds who are seen as being in danger of not completing their courses …” (more)

[Tariq Tahir, Guardian, 26 May]

“Ruth Padel, a great-great granddaughter of Charles Darwin, insisted she had ‘acted in good faith’ and had done ‘nothing intentional’ to lead her rival Derek Walcott to withdraw from the election. Oxford University sources said a new election would now be held. Walcott, who had been the leading candidate for the job which is regarded as one of the most influential in UK poetry behind that of the laureateship, withdrew from the race following an anonymous letter campaign against him …” (more)

[Daily Telegraph, 25 May]

“The Royal Hospital Donnybrook (RHD) has become a teaching hospital affiliated to UCD’s medical school. The first of 50 UCD medical students began their clinical placement in the RHD last month. The students are getting practical, hands-on experience of medicine for the elderly under the supervision of Dr Danielle Ní Chróinín, a UCD lecturer in geriatric medicine …” (more)

[Ronan McGreevy, Irish Times, 26 May]

“… ‘Innovation by invitation’ is now seemingly the order of the day. The evidence has been growing that this is nothing but a huge gamble with taxpayers’ money. The recently announced Trinity-UCD research merger has been the last throw of the dice. Its exaggerated claims about the number of jobs that will result seem to have been accepted ‘on the nod’ as it took a Cabinet sub-committee only a week to agree to it. To advocate as the Government does that science-based innovation is the key to Ireland’s future is not only wrong-headed but is patronising. The Government seems to have little faith in the ingenuity of the Irish population to find their way out of this crisis …” (more)

[Eoin O'Leary, Irish Times, 25 May]

“It is now many years ago since I was first interviewed as a job applicant. The interview took place in the office of the manager of the particular place of employment, and the only people attending were the manager in question and me. As I recall, it lasted for about five minutes. I don’t actually remember the questions he asked me, but I do remember that as I left the office I wondered what benefit he could possibly gain from the encounter, as none of the questions seemed to me to be particularly relevant to anything …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 25 May]

“The government is urging graduates to consider a spell working abroad, whether in internships or volunteering, to avoid the worst of the recession. The advice is backed by the National Union of Students and is being handed out on leaflets at universities over the next couple of weeks …” (more)

[BBC News, 24 May]

“We were surprised and taken aback at the definitive attitude shown by the Tanaiste against a university in the south east. Having allowed Waterford Crystal to close and not rescue it, she has given the region another body blow by failing to support the demand for a university for the south east and Waterford. She claimed that if a university was given to Waterford it would also mean Letterkenny in her own county of Donegal would have similar demands, as would Sligo, Cork and Athlone, all of which want universities. The Minister has missed the point in terms of regional development …” (more)

[Kieran Walsh, Munster Express, 23 May]