“There are really good reasons for Junior Certificate reform, and really bad ones. The worst reason would be a desire to save money. It is expensive to set, supervise and correct 10 to 12 exams for 15 year olds, not to mention the costs of teaching them in the first place …” (more)
[Breda O’Brien, Irish Times, 30 April]
“Emma Watson has denied claims that bullying drove her to take a break from university. Last month the Harry Potter actress announced she was taking time out from her studies at Brown University so she could focus on her film career. But last week it was alleged that she was bullied out of the US Ivy League college …” (more)
[Independent, 30 April]
“UCD 2 Sligo Rovers 1 Robbie Benson and Graham Rusk scored the goals to ignite UCD’s season – and pose major question marks over Sligo Rovers’ title aspirations. College got their first home goal of the campaign as early as eight minutes when Benson headed Deam Marshall’s corner past Brendan Clarke …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 29 April]
“If you have never heard of Andrew Breitbart, think yourself lucky. He is a man with a mission in the United States, mostly to do with combating anything he regards as liberal. He has maintained several websites dedicated to these pursuits, some of which use interesting techniques …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzysnki, University Blog, 30 April]
“Today, a three-judge panel of a US Appeals Court lifted an injunction against the NIH’s revised policy on the funding of stem cell research. The new policy, which would open up research funding to many more human embryonic stem cell lines (hESCs), attracted a lawsuit from researchers who focus on adult stem cells …” (more)
[John Timmer, Ars Technica, 29 April]
“A file containing the names of students and staff of Trinity College Dublin, along with their addresses, ID numbers and email addresses, was ‘inadvertently’ made accessible on a local network, the college said. TCD said today it had reported the incident to the Data Protection Commissioner …” (more)
[Irish Times, 29 April]
“Here it is. After all the counting, here’s the most up-to-date and accurate spreadsheet of the Seanad Election count made public. I include it here in HTML format, and a downloadable .xlsx file …” (more)
[nábídána, 29 April]
“What would you expect if you were paying £135 for each of your university lectures? One-on-one tuition with leading academics? Free materials? Integral work placements? Lunch? With tuition fees at most universities set to treble to £9,000 a year, students will be carefully comparing what’s on offer and making sure they’re getting the best deal on the market …” (more)
[Rosie Taylor, Guardian, 29 April]
“The Project On Student Debt estimates that the average college senior in 2009 graduated with $24,000 in outstanding loans. Last August, student loans surpassed credit cards as the nation’s single largest source of debt, edging ever closer to $1 trillion. Yet for all the moralizing about American consumer debt by both parties, no one dares call higher education a bad investment …” (more)
[HT: Shane O’Mara]
[Malcolm Harris, n+1, 25 April]
“An update on U-Multirank: ‘a multi-dimensional global university ranking’. This is a European Commission-funded feasibility study into developing an alternative approach to rankings …” (more)
[Registrarism, 29 April]
“Nick Clegg, the Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday insisted it was ‘quite right’ to keep free university tuition for Scottish students while their English peers will be forced to pay up to £9,000 per year …” (more)
[Simon Johnson and Peter Hutchison, Daily Telegraph, 29 April]
“Economist Dr Seán Barrett won the last seat on the Dublin University panel for Seanad Éireann on the 18th count, which was announced at 11.30pm. By the 15th count, announced just after 8.30pm, the TCD lecturer had overtaken his main rival …” (more)
[Deaglán de Bréadún, Irish Times, 29 April]
“Fianna Fáil is on course for a better-than-expected performance in the Seanad election which is due to finish today …” (more)
[Stephen Collins, Irish Times, 29 April]
“Teaching graduates have no option but to emigrate because of the jobs crisis in Ireland and the introduction of vastly reduced pay for new entrants to the profession, a young teacher said yesterday …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 29 April]
“Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has promised to examine the practice by publishing companies of frequently issuing new editions of schoolbooks amid concerns that parents are finding themselves under pressure financially to ensure their children have the latest version of texts …” (more)
[Barry Roche, Irish Times, 29 April]
“Madam, – Ferdinand Von Prondzynski named Leitrim as a county that is still a ‘virtual no-go area for higher education’ (Education Today, April 26th). I would like to point out that Leitrim always scores well when it comes to attaining third-level education …” (more)
[Raf Diallo, Irish Times, 29 April]
“A new MBA (Aviation Management) in the University of Limerick focuses specifically on an industry that has continued to see growth, despite economic difficulties in other sectors …” (more)
[Irish Times, 29 April]
“There’s renewed hope in Waterford that WIT will be upgraded to university status following education minister Ruairi Quinn’s comments to the TUI last night.Many of the TUI’s members work in third level education – including most of the teaching staff at WIT – and minister returned to the issue of higher education at the conference …” (more)
[WLR FM, 29 April]
“A letting agency in the South Belfast area, called QUB Student Rentals, has raised alarms in the Students’ Union. The company is completely unrelated to the university which VP Welfare Adam McGibbon says may mislead students …” (more)
[The Gown, 26 April]
“Outgoing Senator Ronan Mullen has topped the poll in the first count for the election of three members of Seanad Éireann on the National University of Ireland panel. The socially conservative former spokesman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin was first elected to the Upper House in the last general election in 2007 …” (more)
[Deaglán de Bréadún, Irish Times, 28 April]
