Ninth Level Ireland

“Everyone who has attended a third level institution has heard the same mantra, that the years you spend in university will be ‘the best years of your life’. We are fed a certain image of university life, replete with parties, close friendships, and time spent ‘finding yourself’. Of course, what is never shown is the reality of student life for the vast majority of students …” (more)

[Gavin Tracey, University Observer, 3 November]

“The rules of the dating game are changing. For Trinity College students in Dublin nightclubs, it can help to have a flyer with advice on sexual consent close to hand. It spells out in an easy acronym: FRIES or ‘freely-given, retractable, informed, enthusiastic and specific’ …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien and Jenna Clarke-Molloy, Irish Times, 3 November]

“An Emeritus Professor said forcing people to retire from the public sector at a set age is ‘discriminatory’ and should be made optional as life expectancy increases …” (more)

[Anne Sheridan, Limerick Leader, 2 November]

“I am walking through Nottingham’s Arboretum park on a bright cold afternoon with 10 other people, all of us in complete silence. At first I find the whole thing so awkward I have to suppress an embarrassed laugh. But as we make our wordless way through the dappled shade, I feel an atmosphere of calm and thoughtfulness envelop us like a protective cloak …” (more)

[Moya Sarner, Guardian, 28 October]

“Last week marked one month since the beginning of the catastrophe caused by Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. A catastrophe through which we are still living. As of this writing, only 20% of Puerto Rico has power. Our university campus, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüez, is one of the lucky places that has electricity. We also have water …” (more)

[Catherine M Mazak, Chronicle of Higher Education, 26 October]

“Late in the evening of Sunday 15th October UCC students received emails and texts from the university, alerting them to the status red weather warning put in place by Met Éireann for the following day regarding the then-Hurricane Ophelia …” (more)

[Michelle Beazley, UCC Express, 25 October]

“The news broke just as the queue had started to form outside the exam hall of Trinity College Dublin on the evening of October 21, 1977. Half a world away, a plane carrying American classic rockers Lynyrd Skynyrd had crashed during landing, claiming the lives of several band members and backing crew …” (more)

[Ed Power, Independent, 21 October]

“More Irish women than men had third-level qualifications in 2016, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). Women represented 52.2% of all third-level graduates in Ireland in 2016 …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 18 October]

“Tens of millions of deaths in the first and second World Wars were young men who succumbed on the soil of foreign countries, miles from their homes. If a driving force behind the creation of the EU (formerly the EEC) was a closer, familial Europe, then there was a clear need to create an antithetical space to the battle field where the continent’s youth could engage …” (more)

[Mark Hilliard, Irish Times, 17 October]

“A woman working in a shop on the campus of University College Dublin (UCD) was threatened with a gun during a late-night armed raid. The incident happened at the Centra store on the UCD campus at Belfield, south Dublin, on Wednesday at about 10pm …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 6 October]

“What use is a PhD nowadays? After almost two decades in education, is it really worth committing another three, four or even more years to a doctorate? Will it help you in your career, or are PhDs a frivolous extravagance for the rich? Once upon a time, the path for PhD students was clear: graduate and become an academic …” (more)

[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 26 September]

“Students unable to find rental accommodation have been left sleeping on friend’s couches and staying in tourist hostels in Dublin as the college term began this month …” (more)

[Jack Power, Irish Times, 25 September]

“An Irish male graduate will earn, on average, €80,000 more in this lifetime than a female graduate, an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report has found. The report, which contains data on the state of education in countries around the world, also highlights a gender imbalance in a number of fields of study …” (more)

[Aisling Grace, Trinity News, 21 September]

“Girls continue to outperform boys at Junior Cert level, with more female than male students scoring A grades in 18 out of 21 higher-level subjects this year, according to the 2017 results. Girls also scored higher than boys in most subjects at ordinary level …” (more)

[Sorcha Pollak, Irish Times, 15 September]

“When Prof Deborah Wickering comes across the name ‘Tully’ back in Michigan’s Grand Rapids, her heart skips a little beat and she thinks of Connemara. ‘There are several children with that name over here now – but our dean of social sciences was walking the pier one day and met a dog owner who had called her animal after Tullycross’, she says …” (more)

[Lorna Siggins, Irish Times, 14 September]

“… While much of her focus is to be on the work of her grandparents, and Irish and women’s history, the plant ecologist will also be highlighting continuing gender inequality in Irish academia. She has offered her €70,000 award in a gender discrimination case against NUI Galway to support five other women who, like her, were not promoted in 2009 …” (more)

[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 8 September]

“The recent UniversitiesUK #stepchange mental health in higher education policy states that: ‘The higher education sector should lead a national conversation on mental health. The sector should be bold, innovative, collaborative and inclusive’. In part, this is a response to the rise recorded in published HESA data of students whose experience of mental health problems forced them to end their studies …” (more)

[Richard Hall, Wonkhe, 6 September]

“The notion that nursing graduates are fleeing these shores in droves in search of better pay and conditions has been challenged by a study which shows the vast majority remain here for work immediately after graduation …” (more)

[Catherine Shanahan, Irish Examiner, 6 September]

“The gender stereotypes of parents and teachers play a large role in putting young girls off careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (Stem) careers, a study has found. The study found 53% of girls in secondary school drop Stem subjects due to pressure from parents …” (more)

[Jack Power, Irish Times, 6 September]

“Almost five times as many students as 10 years ago have disclosed a mental health condition to their university, say researchers. In 2015-16, more than 15,000 UK-based first-year students disclosed mental health issues, Institute of Public Policy Research analysis suggests …” (more)

[Judith Burns, BBC News, 4 September]