Ninth Level Ireland

“The School of Physics executive is to recommend to the Provost that the Schrödinger lecture theatre be renamed, and that the annual Schrödinger lecture series be discontinued. In an email to physics students and staff, Head of School Prof Jonathan Coleman said that signage and photos of Schrödinger will be removed or covered up until College makes a decision on the name change …” (more)

[Emer Moreau, University Times, 21 January]

“Medical student in universities in Northern Ireland and Great Britain cannot apply for internships in Irish hospitals due to Brexit – an anomaly that the Department of Health is hoping to fix by the end of the year …” (more)

[Gráinne Ní Aodha, TheJournal.ie, 21 January]

“The Irish Universities Association has said it would prefer a return to a normalised grading pattern for the Leaving Cert. Its director-general Jim Miley said that to return to a ‘hybrid-model’ as used last year would ‘exacerbate a bottle-neck’ in the number of students applying to college and causing pressures within the system …” (more)

[Eoghan Dalton, TheJournal.ie, 22 January]

“Almost two-thirds of undergraduate physics students want the Schrödinger lecture theatre to be renamed, according to a survey created by third-year theoretical physics class representative Ruaidhrí Campion …” (more)

[Jody Druce, University Times, 20 January]

Abstract: In the higher education (HE) landscape worldwide, team teaching has become increasingly common. The growing prevalence of team teaching in HE has mainly been driven by the necessity to cope with larger classes, workload requirements, and the complexity of delivering multi-disciplinary courses or to provide a more stable quality of course portfolio over time. Whilst there are advantages of this teaching model, team teaching is not without challenges to team teachers. Managing individual differences within teams has been identified in the extant literature as one of the most significant challenges in team teaching. This study maps the contours of practice that surround individual differences in team teaching, focusing on the contradictions arising from individual differences and their resolutions. Adopting a sociocultural activity theory perspective, this research explores contradictions arising from team members’ individual differences and how team teachers resolve these contradictions. Data include in-depth interviews with 16 academics who have team taught successfully in multiple disciplines at two Australian universities. Three main types of contradictions arising from individual differences were found. Contradictions may relate to academics’ content knowledge expertise, academic autonomy, role ambiguity, and power hierarchy within a teaching team. Findings reveal these team teachers adopted multiple strategies to resolve contradictions and work together on their shared object of student learning. Findings challenge the common view in the existing literature that values homogeneity in teaching teams and sees contradictions as detrimental to team teaching. The study has multiple implications for research on team teaching and for academics and institutions embarking on this teaching model.

Thi Kim Anh Dang, Angela Carbone, Jing Ye and Thao Thi Phuong Vu, How academics manage individual differences to team teach in higher education: a sociocultural activity theory perspective, Higher Education (2022). Published: 21 January 2022.

“Ireland is known for its excellence in education. On the global stage, we talk about Ireland’s talented workforce and we take great pride at home in our young graduates. However, a new report has revealed concerns around graduate experiences of working in Ireland today …” (more)

[Sarah Kieran, Claire Harnett, Lorraine Ryan and Christine Cross, RTÉ News, 21 January]

“More than 65,000 college hopefuls applied the CAO ahead of reduced-fee deadline, about 900 fewer than at the same time last year. The CAO received 65,535 applications by 5pm January 20, compared with 66,457 on the same day in 2021. The comparable figures for 2020 and 2019 are 61,387 and 59,671 …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 20 January]

“Ainmníodh príomhléachtlann an Fhoirgnimh Fitzgerald i ndiaidh an fisiceoir cáiliúil Erwin Schrödinger. Ar an drochuair, ciallaíonn sé sin gur ainm péidifileach atá ar an léachtlann. Tá fíricí an scéal coscrach ar an gcuid is lú de. Scríobh Schrödinger é féin a chuid smaointe claona síos i ndialann a rinne an Irish Times tuairisc air i Mí na Nollag …” (more)

[University Times, 19 January]

“Cocaine has replaced ecstasy as the second-most common drug used by students at third-level, says a new report by University College Cork (UCC). The Drug Use in Higher Education Institutions survey found that while cannabis remains the most common drug at third level, cocaine use has risen in recent years …” (more)

[Tadgh McNally, TheJournal.ie, 20 January]

“Sir, – J Tidmore (Letters, January 19th) raises excellent points with respect to the Leaving Cert. While the circumstances of the past two years forced difficult, and perhaps unfair, compromises, we have surely reached a point where we have sufficient capability to revert to some semblance of normality …” (more)

[Letters, Irish Times, 20 January]

“Here are some very interesting – and perhaps surprising – statistics about working from home in Ireland. It’s a few months old, but still relevant. It would be interesting to see an attitudes survey of this type for staff and student in Third Level institutions …” (more)

[In the Dark, 19 January]

“Trinity College Dublin (TCD) has given notice that it intends to lodge fresh plans for an eight storey 358 unit student accommodation scheme for Dartry in Dublin 6. An Bord Pleanala previously granted TCD the go-ahead for the student accommodation scheme at Trinity Hall in August 2020 despite local residents’ complaints over alleged late night, drunken rowdy behaviour by students …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 18 January]

“The President of the University of Limerick, Professor Kerstin Mey, has called for urgent Government action on a new funding model for the Irish university sector. Speaking at the first in-person conferring ceremony to take place at UL for two years, the President said ‘the importance and resilience of the Higher Education sector has never been more evident’ …” (more)

[Limerick Leader, 18 January]

“Queen’s University of Belfast (QUB) has told students that face-to-face teaching on campus will resume from 31 January. The university had returned to widespread remote learning for the vast majority of students during January …” (more)

[Robbie Meredith, BBC News, 18 January]

“When the Leaving Cert results and offers of places in colleges were released last September, there was a blizzard of criticism of the points system. This was odd because the problem at the time was caused by inflated grades produced by the school-based assessment system …” (more)

[John McAvoy, Irish Times, 18 January]

“Mark Cooper, a second-year law and business student at University College Cork, last week joined the university’s efforts to safeguard women in the wake of the killing of Ashling Murphy in Tullamore, Co Offaly. He was not alone …” (more)

[Colette Sheridan, Irish Times, 17 January]

“Strikes are ‘unpredictable before the event and only partially explicable afterwards’; this is certainly true of the strike in 1977 by the administrative/secretarial staff at University College Galway (UCG). At that time, a strike for union recognition in the public sector would have been rare enough, a strike by young female clerical workers was rarer still …” (more)

[Tish Gibbons, Look Left, 16 January]

“The Government expects salary increases for public servants to form part of new pay talks which will commence in Autumn. Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said on Sunday that with rising inflation, it was inevitable that any negotiations for a new agreement between the Government and public service unions would include pay hikes …” (more)

[Harry McGee, Irish Times, 16 January]

“Carole speaks to UCC’s Professor Louise Crowley about the Bystander Intervention Programme which is teaching students to identify and call out inappropriate behaviour” (audio).

[RTÉ Radio – This Week, 16 January]

“Plans to provide funds for free antigen tests for third level students across Ireland has been welcomed by the national students union. In December, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris announced a €9 million fund for further and higher education institutions to provide free antigen tests to students across Ireland …” (more)

[Darragh Bermingham, Irish Examiner, 16 January]