Ninth Level Ireland

“Schools will be told they cannot not use the results of mock exams as a basis for estimating marks for Leaving Cert students under the accredited grades process. The ‘mocks’ are a familiar part of the run-up to the June exams and most schools hold them, usually the January and February of sixth year …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 24 February]

“At a time when French universities are struggling to deal with the epidemic, when students’ poverty should be a prime concern for the authorities, the French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, Frédérique Vidal, announced on a TV channel that she intends to set up an inquiry into ‘islamo-leftism’ and postcolonialism in French universities …” (more)

[Thomas Perroud, Verfassungsblog, 24 February]

“Internal Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) documentation highlights senior university officials expressing concern at the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on international student recruitment. This documentation, seen by The Detail, also shows how the university values just eight international students as having an economic impact equivalent to £1 million …” (more)

[Rory Winters, The Detail, 24 February]

“For the first year on record, more faculty members used learning management systems than print course materials when teaching classes, according a new report released Tuesday from the National Association of College Stores. The 2020 Faculty Watch report is based on a survey of 968 faculty members from 17 two- and four-year, public and private institutions in the United States and Canada …” (more)

[Emma Whitford, Inside Higher Ed, 24 February]

“Simon Harris has launched a stakeholder consultation on the reform of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) legislation. A report on this reform has also been published by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science …” (more)

[Rosie Kuntz, College Tribune, 23 February]

“The number of technological universities may grow from two to five by this time next year, according to Government Ministers. A technological university for the Midlands and the Mid-West, based on the merger of Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology, is likely to be established in September of this year …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 23 February]

“It’s a line from a song in the film ‘Mahogany’ sung by Diana Ross. It goes, ‘Do you know where you’re going to? Do you like the things that life is showing you?’ It’s an appropriate ask for the TUSE process. Can anyone give a sensible rationale for where we’re going or why? Is the rush to get the word university over the door in any form supposed to make us all step into line regardless of the outcome? …” (more)

[Waterford News and Star, 23 February]

“Fears are growing that St Patrick’s Day celebrations will rage through Belfast’s student area after ‘alarming’ reports of multiple house parties on Monday night. Residents in the Holyland area said young people have been gathering ‘from far and wide’ for drunken festivities, and blatantly disregarding current lockdown restrictions …” (more)

[Claire McNeilly, Belfast Telegraph, 23 February]

“Yesterday, An Bord Pleanála consented to the overturning of planning permission previously given to College for the expansion of Trinity Hall (Halls). The accommodation complex had received the green light by An Bord Pleanála in August for the addition of 358 student beds into the complex, which has been overturned following an appeals case …” (more)

[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 23 February]

“Public service unions affiliated to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions have overwhelmingly endorsed the new public service agreement. The ‘Building Momentum’ deal will deliver pay rises of up to 3% over two years and unwind some cuts and additional hours imposed during the financial crisis …” (more)

[Ingrid Miley, RTÉ News, 23 February]

“The number of University of Limerick students referred for Covid-19 tests has risen by more than 10 times in just two weeks. Dr Ronan Ryder, the director of the student health centre at the college, said the service referred fewer than five patients for testing 14 days ago …” (more)

[Nick Rabbitts, Limerick Leader, 23 February]

“The Government has been warned that developing links between Irish and Chinese universities must be scrutinised because of concerns about human rights violations in China. Independent Senator Rónán Mullen said the State’s education system may be ‘contaminated’ as a result of developing these links amid such violations …” (more)

[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 22 February]

WSinn Féin spokesperson on Health David Cullinane has reiterated his call for the Minister for Health to immediately pay student nurses and midwives. This follows a Sinn Féin motion which was passed by the Dáil a month ago on January 20th …” (more)

[Sinn Féin, 22 February]

“The founder of the UCD Rugby Academy and former Director of Rugby for University College Dublin (UCD), John McClean has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the sexual abuse of 23 schoolboys at Terenure College …” (more)

[Mahnoor Choudhry, College Tribune, 22 February]

“One useful thing about having a blog is that I can look through my back catalogue of posts quite easily to remind me exactly when things happened. Doing that over the weekend I discovered that it was exactly a year ago today that I travelled from Maynooth into Dublin to see a production of Fidelio …” (more)

[In the Dark, 22 February]

“The Leader of An Seanad, Senator Regina Doherty, is to ask the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to provide an updated report on the proposed west and north-west technological university – an investment that will incorporate the Mayo Campus of GMIT in Castlebar …” (more)

[Connaught Telegraph, 21 February]

“I thought I’d share an interesting paper (by Xie, Shen & Wang) that I found on the arXiv with the title ‘Is preprint the future of science? A thirty year journey of online preprint services’. The abstract reads …” (more)

[In the Dark, 21 February]

“UCDSU President Conor Anderson and Welfare Officer Ruairí Power met with the Registrar and Deans on Wednesday to discuss new COVID-19 aids for students. The proposed accommodations include waiving resit fees, uncapped resit grades, and the automatic right to resit an assessment or exam in August. The College Tribune met with Ruairí Power to discuss how the meeting went, his rationale for pursuing these measures, and the likelihood of their passing …” (more)

[Rosie Roberts Kuntz, College Tribune, 21 February]

“‘China’ has become the elephant in the room that we, in the field of international higher education, can no longer ignore. What exactly this elephant looks like is still in dispute between those who prefer to ‘engage’ with the rising superpower in the East and those who propose to ‘contain’ an emerging adversary that challenges established Western norms …” (more)

[Queenie KH Lam, University World News, 20 February]

“The Government was warned some students risked being ‘thrown under the bus’ due to its decision to remove school performance data from the calculated grades system used in last year’s Leaving Certificate. The comment is contained in internal Department of Education records, seen by The Irish Times, which throw fresh light over a decision to omit ‘school profiling’ from the calculated grades process …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 22 February]