“All three EU committees advising the International Trade Committee have today rejected the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), the treaty to put a stop to piracy …” (more)
[Carmel Doyle, Silicon Republic, 31 May]
“The Deputy First Minister Martin Mc Guiness has spoken at a reception to celebrate the history of NUS-USI NI, the umbrella body for student unions in Northern Ireland …” (more)
[Ciaran Hanna, Studenty_Belfast, 31 May]
“The main rivals in the international higher education rankings business went head to head this week to launch league tables of the world’s top newer universities. Hours before Times Higher Education magazine was due to publish its Top 100 ranking of universities under 50 years old with data supplied by Thomson Reuters, QS leapt in with its own Top 50 …” (more)
[David Jobbins, University World News, 31 May]
“… But despite being charged with violent disorder, he was allowed to complete his politics degree at the University of the West of England (UWE) and has since graduated with a First Class BA Honours. Today he was sentenced to 14-months in prison for his ‘disgraceful’ actions during the riot and may now have his degree withheld …” (more)
[Martin Evans, Daily Telegraph, 31 May]
“Among its commitments in a pre-election document on arts policy, Fine Gael promised that ‘cultural discussion will be driven up the agenda of government’ and that ‘the arm’s length principle will be respected’. It would now appear that these commitments had no real meaning …” (more)
[Irish Times, 31 May]
“Everyone knows what vice chancellors got paid last year. In the build up to the latest remuneration league table just published in Times Higher Education, a sense of mild hysteria prevailed in some quarters. National headlines attacking fat cat VCs, unfavourable comparisons with bankers and other senior executives seemed likely …” (more)
[Nick Petford, Guardian Professional, 31 May]
“… When things get political, lumping contributes to polarization — creating teams sufficiently simple and contentious enough to prepare for battle. Splitters make much less of a splash in political discourse. These are people who seek nuance, differentiation, and subtlety when approaching a problem or a population …” (more)
[Kent Anderson, The Scholarly Kitchen, 31 May]
“Irish second level school students are now in the early stages of their school leaving examinations, with oral language and applied science examinations ongoing and the main written exams starting Wednesday 6th with English Paper 1 …” (more)
[Brian M Lucey, 31 May]
“Ireland’s three youngest universities are ranked among the top 100 in the world for their age. The three – NUI Maynooth (NUIM), Dublin City University (DCU) and the University of Limerick (UL) – are all under 50 years old …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 31 May]
“The government’s ruthless, distorted idea of ‘competition’ will impoverish the whole academy and everyone in it. Thomas Docherty muses on a prescient 40-year-old speech warning of the trap at the end of the rat race …” (more)
[Times Higher Education, 31 May]
“New league table aims to identify the rising stars of the global academy. The Republic of Korea’s Pohang University of Science and Technology has topped the first Times Higher Education ranking of the 100 best universities under the age of 50, leading a strong showing for East Asian universities …” (more)
[John Morgan, Times Higher Education, 31 May]
“Three Irish universities are ranked among the top 100 new colleges worldwide in the Times Higher Education rankings. NUI Maynooth (ranked 64th) is the leading Irish university on the list followed by Dublin City University (86th) and the University of Limerick (97th). The new rankings come after rival QS rankings this week …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 31 May]
“Sir, – I wish to take issue with an article in The Irish Times (May 24th) that is factually incorrect. The article is a report of a hearing by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and it carried a headline saying ‘Only 3% of Ballymun pupils move on to third level’. The correct percentage for Trinity Comprehensive is 37% …” (more)
[Pat O’Dowd, Irish Times, 31 May]
“‘We enjoy your classes’, my seminar students said to me, ‘because you’re not a real teacher’. When I asked what they meant, they told me about the ‘real’ classes of certain, named male teachers. ‘They are here forever’, they said, ‘but we are happy we had the chance to be your students because soon you will marry and have children and then you won’t be here any more’ …” (more)
[Susan Burton, Times Higher Education, 31 May]
“It’s a good year to be doing the Leaving Certificate, with numbers entered for the exam down more than 1,500 on last year. Combined with the expansion in college places in recent years, it offers school-leavers a greater opportunity of getting into third-level …” (more)
[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 31 May]
“A young student who was injured in a freak accident in sand dunes while on holiday has died in hospital …” (more)
[Majella O’Sullivan and Ralph Riegel, Independent, 31 May]
“This year sees a drop in the number of candidates sitting the Leaving Certificate. It is being put down to a low birth rate back in 1994, when many of the students were born …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 31 May]
“Most parents agree that the third level education years will be the most expensive for them, yet only 37% have specifically started to save for these years …” (more)
[Frank Dillon, Irish Times, 31 May]
“In a story covered by the Chronicle, but not widely in extracurricular news venues, it was announced that the University of Missouri would phase out its press beginning this July …” (more)
[Frank Donoghue, Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 May]
“The body of Irishwoman Nicola Furlong will arrive back in Dublin tomorrow as Japanese police continue their investigation into her death. Two US men are being held on suspicion of drugging and strangling the DCU exchange student in an upmarket Tokyo hotel last week …” (more)
[David McNeill, Irish Times, 30 May]
