The events of the week have been dominated by decisions yet to be made. Will the Public Service Agreement (the Croke Park deal) be endorsed nationally? What will the Higher Education Strategy Group (the Hunt Review) recommend, and how much of it will then be put into law? And (biggest of all) what will happen over university fees?
For general comment this week in the blogosphere see: 3rd level: Who’s going to fund it?; ‘Innovation’ and academic tenure; Education, skills and training; Education is not a luxury: it is a great gift.
Various skirmishes, sorties and preliminary try-ons around these impending decisions have happened this week:
- There is continuing pressure on universities to do more to fit their students for the jobs market. See: Graduates lacking in key ‘hands-on’ skills; ‘Interview techniques should be taught at third level’; Language gap is latest threat to jobs. While this is all much more lower-key than the vitriol which has come the universities’ way recently, the sad fact is that articles criticising university performance get wide coverage, whereas those refuting the criticism, or painting a more positive picture, have a much smaller circulation. See: Making higher education count politically.
- The universities will soon be brought before the Public Accounts Committee of the Oireachtas. Government scepticism seems to be finding a focus in the university pension schemes, which the government is supposedly on the verge of absorbing into the general civil service scheme: see €22m cost of colleges’ pension gift. The universities’ counter-retort (in addition to some last-minute tidying-up to rebut the charge of irresponsibility) is that the government has yet to take a realistic line on how much genuinely world-class universities cost. See: Cash-strapped colleges ‘unviable’; The high risk resulting from university expansion when funding is cut.
- IFUT met on Saturday for their Annual Delegate Conference, and discussed the Croke Park deal amongst other matters. A resolution “strongly and enthusiastically” urging members to reject the deal was passed, with only one abstention. For some other items discused see: Employment Control Framework Seriously Damages Careers of Female Lecturers and Researchers, IFUT ADC 24th April.
- UCD launched their new Strategic Plan on Wednesday, including a headline-grabbing scheme to recruit only half their future students from the standard school-leaver CAO stream – implying a massive increase in both postgraduate students and non-standard undergraduates (particularly mature students). See: UCD to alter student profile to reduce €12m debt; Plan for half UCD students to come from outside CAO; University strategy – UCD. It may be that the Irish university system will follow the UK system in admitting significantly more mature students – but if so this brings problems of its own, which will need to be addresed with some urgency. See especially: Academic warns ageism is widespread at third level.
- UCC’s governing body met on Tuesday and discussed the proposed new conferring fee. While in a sense the matter is purely local, the issue is no doubt being watched with interest by many others, including student unions, university presidents, and political parties; if UCC’s management gets away with this, other Irish universities will have no reason not to try something similar. See: Conferring charge; UCC governing body wants disputed graduation fee scrapped; Student Experience VP Defends Conferring Fee; Reflections on the UCC Conferring fee debacle.
Other major news, Irish and foreign:
- Opening moves in TCD’s provost election Trinity fellows block attempt to open up Provost ballot; Teacher’s Pet; Coming up soon – the job with the best perks in Ireland.
- UK election The major parties have attempted to kick the issue of university fees to touch until the election is over, but this is not a popular tactic, and some candidates are starting to break ranks. See: What does the election hold for education policy?; Candidates oppose rise in tuition fees; ‘Come clean on tuition fees’, students tell politicians.
- UK funding The possibility of making academic staff redundant (not currently an option widely available to Irish university presidents) is starting to be exploited in response to budget cuts. See the latest battles at Birmingham, Cumbria, Lancaster, Oxford, UCL, and Westminster.
- Cyberspace Another university in Second Life has been closed, after disputes involving “virtual superheroes, accusations of vandalism, and conflicting ideas of what a campus should look like in a virtual world”. See: Woodbury U. Banned From Second Life, Again.
Think-pieces, international and miscellaneous: