“… For both Irish universities, the QS exercise paid off handsomely. An official at University College Cork told The Irish Examiner newspaper that if the QS stars ‘result in attracting a single additional, full-time international student to study at UCC then the costs of participation are covered’ …” (more)
[DD Guttenplan, New York Times, 30 December]
“Irish newspapers have started invoicing agencies that link to their content. If this unwelcome industry practise creeps into academe, it could stifle the delivery of high-quality content …” (more)
[Bernie Goldbach, Inside View from Ireland, 31 December]
“As politicians try to avert the fiscal cliff, Lake Superior State University wants to ban it – the phrase at least. ‘Fiscal cliff’ tops the university’s 38th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness …” (more)
[Inside Higher Ed, 31 December]
“Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar has called for changes to pension arrangements for staff in the public service. He was responding yesterday to plans for a new universal pension scheme envisaged by the Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton …” (more)
[Deaglán de Bréadún and others, Irish Times, 31 December]
“Education Minister Ruairi Quinn is set to create a cabinet split in the New Year by pushing ahead with his plan to include farmland and business assets in the means test for student grants …” (more)
[Michael Brennan, Independent, 31 December]
“University presidents are set to back a radical reform of the college entry system which will result in wider availability of general entry courses – and the abolition of many highly specialised first-year courses …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 31 December]
“The Immigrant Council of Ireland (ICI) has called on the government to ratify an international convention against cybercrime, in an effort to ensure the protection of human rights online and to clamp down on online abuse …” (more)
[TheJournal.ie, 31 December]
“Most Irish parents or guardians have at least 25 children’s books available to their children in the home, much higher than the international average …” (more)
[Seán Flynn, Irish Times, 31 December]
“Donal McAnallen, brother of the late Cormac from Tyrone, has set a new standard for GAA history books with his 100-year history of the Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup competitions, which was launched by An Taoiseach Enda Kenny …” (more)
[Independent, 31 December]
“Despite efforts to get more women into science labs almost half of Britain’s co-ed schools have no female students taking A-level physics. Are sexist attitudes still to blame – or is it a fear of being thought uncool? …” (more)
[Elizabeth Day, The Observer, 30 December]
“The lifeblood of science is data. No matter how ingenious human beings have proved to be, scientific progress has always depended on new data being produced. If you work in science (or engineering) for a long time, you tend to get impatient when discussions take place in the absence of good data …” (more)
[educationandstuff, 30 December]
“I’m back in beautiful Austria this week for some skiing, this time in Niederau, a quiet village in the Kitzbuler Alps. I managed to finish my exam corrections before Christmas and decided to reward myself with a last-minute snow holiday in the Alps …” (more)
[Antimatter, 30 December]
“‘When there is no noise in my room it scares me’, emails one of my undergraduate students. ‘It seems I can’t stand silence’, writes another …” (more)
[Bruce Fell, The Conversation, 31 December]
“This is not a joke. I have started with that clarification, because as you read this you will find yourself asking ‘Is this some kind of a joke?’ I thought I would be helpful and put the answer right up at the start, so you can refer back to it as often as you require …” (more)
[McGarr Solicitors, 30 December]
“… One of the little-known roles of the academic librarian is bereavement counseling: assisting families with the disposition of books when the deceased have not specified a plan for them. Most relatives know these books were the lifeblood of their owners and so of intellectual value if not great monetary worth …” (more)
[Andrew Scrimgeour, New York Times, 28 December]
“Slowly, but surely, robots (and virtual ’bots that exist only as software) are taking over our jobs; according to one back-of-the-envelope projection, in ninety years ‘70% of today’s occupations will likewise be replaced by automation’. Should we be worried? …” (more)
[Gary Marcus, New Yorker, 29 December]
Here are the top posts and pages on 9th level Ireland for 2012. About 20,000 pageviews per month at the moment. Happy holidays!
Top posts
Top pages
“Every December, we look back on the year and remember some of the highs and lows and celebrate some of the successes of Irish teachers. This year was a fairly difficult year for teachers in Ireland with a number of initiatives being thrown at us from the government – some good, some bad …” (more)
[Anseo.net, 29 December]
“How does a free law class taught by Harvard faculty sound? Harvard Law School is accepting applications for its first online course via edX — a new online education venture between six leading universities …” (more)
[Karen Sloan, National Law Journal, 27 December]
“Two Emeritus Professors at the University of Ulster have been recognised in the New Year Honours List published today. Eileen Evason, Emeritus Professor of Social Administration was appointed CBE, while Alan Woodside, Emeritus Professor of Highway Engineering, received the OBE …” (more)
[University Of Ulster News Release, 29 December]
