“Teachers have said it is too soon to begin talking about details of any successor to the Croke Park pay deal after Education Minister Ruairi Quinn said he believed additional hours should be provided instead of pay cuts …” (more)
[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 31 July]
“In 1973, the Whitlam Labor government abolished university tuition fees. In 1987, the Hawke Government radically created thousands of extra university places by creating a national system, financing it via HECS. Yet in the new millennium, Australian universities are still inaccessible to historically under-represented student groups …” (more)
[Tim Pitman, The Conversation, 31 July]
“For the past few years a big search has been on to find the most useful key performance indicators with which to judge the performance of universities. So the view has been expressed by politicians and in the media that there must be some metrics which most accurately reveal the productivity of the academy …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 30 July]
“A new programme offers support to students with Asperger syndrome who are about to start college …” (more)
[Sylvia Thompson, Irish Times, 31 July]
“… Universities were once wary of giving away their courses online. At best, the videos took up server space and ate into a professor’s office hours; at worst, they diluted the Ivy League brand. Today, the calculus has changed. Enterprising academics are anxious to show off their research or take the stage in front of 10,000 students …” (more)
[Kevin Charles Redmon, Prospect, 28 June]
“… The effort was led by Sen Tom Harkin, the Iowa Democrat who is chairman of the committee and has been a vocal supporter of increased government oversight of the for-profit industry. Mr Harkin said at a news conference on Monday that federal student aid spent at for-profit colleges, which totaled $32bn in 2009-10, had in many cases been ‘squandered’ by companies that failed to graduate a majority of their students and poorly prepared them for jobs …” (more)
[Michael Stratford, Chronicle of Higher Education, 30 July]
“It is odd to think that we live in a time when the college model may be in the process of breaking apart. So much suggests that college has never been more successful. Record numbers of students graduate every year. Every graduating class is more diverse than the one that preceded it. Foreign students flock to American quads …” (more)
[HT: Steve Schwartz]
[Steven Brint, Los Angeles Review of Books, 29 July]
[Review of Andrew Delbanco, College: What It Was, Is, and Should Be]
“The NUS says some university teaching is just not rigorous enough, and calls for more seminars …” (more)
[Anna Fazackerley, Guardian, 30 July]
“A new ranking has appeared, the CWUR World Universities Rankings published by the Center for World University Ranking in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The top ten …” (more)
[University Ranking Watch, 30 July]
“Leading student anti-cuts group Free Education for Everyone (FEE) has attacked Dublin City University’s decision to agree a student fees loan deal with the Bank of Ireland, the third such Irish Third Level body to do so …” (more)
[Free Education for Everyone, 30 July]
“A secondary teachers’ union has accused the Education Minister Ruairí Quinn of opening talks on a second Croke Park deal through the media. It comes after Mr Quinn told the Sunday Times he wants negotiations for a second agreement to begin in the Autumn …” (more)
[BreakingNews.ie, 30 July]
“Arguments about access to university have dominated the headlines ever since the hike in tuition fees was announced two years ago. But despite many debates about university funding, the financial difficulties facing postgraduates are rarely mentioned …” (more)
[Hannah Parker, Guardian, 30 July]
“The way we pose for photographs differs according to whether we want to appear rational and objective or intuitive and sensitive, researchers say. A survey of academics has shown that the pose people adopt reflects the discipline in which they work …” (more)
[Jeremy Laurance, Independent, 30 July]
“The Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) is taking steps to avoid a repeat of the debacle over a report which claimed people were better off on the dole than working, the Irish Independent has learned …” (more)
[Laura Noonan, Independent, 30 July]
“The library of Trinity College and other Dublin landmarks will feature in a new animation, which science fiction writer Terry Pratchett is collaborating on, along with Irish students …” (more)
[Ken Sweeney, Independent, 30 July]
“It cost the State €30 million to correct and supervise exams and second-level teachers should be obliged to correct as part of their contract, with no extra remuneration, Young Fine Gael have said …” (more)
[Anne Lucey, Irish Times, 30 July]
“Universities need to take immediate action to give better access to students from the most deprived communities, a senior figure in higher education has said. Mark Batho, chief executive of the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), warned of financial penalties for universities if they did not do enough to close the gap, and said improvements would be expected from next year …” (more)
[Andrew Denholm, Herald Scotland, 30 July]
“… Countless people, from my friends to my (former) dean have asked ‘Why? Why give up an excellent [some say “cushy”] tenured faculty position for the grind of corporate life?’ Honestly, the reasons are myriad and complex, and some of them are purely personal …” (more)
[HT: Steve Schwartz]
[Terran Lane, Ars Experientia, 23 July]
“One of the perks of studying the English republican exiles in Europe is that I get to travel a lot. This is nice, not just because it gets me out of the daily grind of university life but also because I get to see how other people in other countries do things …” (more)
[The History Woman’s Blog, 28 July]
“Young Fine Gael has today passed a motion calling for legislation against mandatory membership of students’ unions and the Union of Students in Ireland. Young Fine Gael delegates at the first annual Garret Fitzgerald Summer School in Killarney passed the motion …” (more)
[Jack Leahy, University Times, 28 July]
