Ninth Level Ireland

“Trinity has cancelled the physical opening of its strategic plan, scheduled to take place tomorrow, and will instead launch the plan on a live stream due to the ‘ongoing situation’ around the spread of the coronavirus. In an email to attendees today, Provost Patrick Prendergast wrote of College’s ‘regret’ at the cancellation, but added that ‘we believe that this is the best course of action under the circumstances’ …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University Times, 9 March]

“Trinity students who are away on Erasmus or study abroad programmes are not required ‘at this time’ to cut short their exchange and return home, despite the rapid spread of the coronavirus around the world. Last week, The University Times reported that Trinity had been in contact with all students currently on Erasmus exchange in Italy – where the rapid spread of the coronavirus has forced a near-lockdown of the northern part of the country – but was not requiring them to return home …” (more)

[Emer Moreau, University Times, 9 March]

“Journals play an important role in signalling the quality of academic research. This quality is often linked to measures such as the journal impact factor. However, these measures often obscure the overall quality of research papers in a journal. In this post, Margit Osterloh and Bruno Frey argue that the overall quality and originality of published academic research can be improved by introducing randomness into the peer review process …” (more)

[Impact of Social Sciences, 9 March]

“Good morning and welcome back. I thought I would start the week off with a really cheery topic, like a global pandemic and how it will affect higher education. There are lots of ways to talk about the effects of coronavirus on higher education, but broadly, they come down to two different strategies to contain the spread of the virus: travel restrictions and social distancing …” (more)

[Alex Usher, HESA, 9 March]

“In the stories of Thomas the Tank Engine, the greatest compliment is to be called ‘very useful’. Engines have to prove their practical value on a daily basis and those who fail to do so are sent by the all-powerful Sir Topham Hatt to the scrap yard. It is exactly this sort of utilitarian propaganda that President Michael D Higgins railed against last week …” (more)

[Irish Times, 9 March]

“The person in Trinity College Dublin who was diagnosed with coronavirus ‘appears to have made a good recovery’, the university said. Trinity closed part of a building on Friday for deep cleaning after a case of Covid-19 within the college community was confirmed. At this time, to Trinity’s knowledge, no other case has been diagnosed within the college community. Most of the building that underwent cleaning is now functioning as normal except for a few rooms on the fourth floor …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly and Brian Keogh, Independent, 9 March]

“Talk of rent hikes in campus accommodation hit an all-time high this week. A whopping seven out of eight of Ireland’s universities have now announced that they will be raising prices by between three and four per cent, which is the maximum amount allowed by rent pressure-zone legislation. Predictably enough, students have shown their outrage by staging protests, sleep-outs and rallies …” (more)

[University Times, 9 March]

“Thousands of students have applied for hardship funding from colleges amid a backdrop of unrest in universities over hikes to on-campus rents. Latest figures indicate that at least 14,000 students have applied for funding totalling €9 million from the Student Assistance Fund in the current academic year …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 9 March]

“Finance Minister Conor Murphy has visited Derry for the first time since promising to provide match-funding for Derry’s City Deal. Mr. Murphy met John Kelpie, Chief Executive of Derry City and Strabane District Council and a delegation of businesses including Redmond McFadden the President and Dawn McLaughlin Vice-President of the Chamber of Commerce …” (more)

[Kevin Mullan, Derry Journal, 6 March]

“A new CAO system that would allow school leavers to apply for both university and further education courses is under consideration by the Department of Education. The proposal is contained in a draft departmental consultation paper, seen by The Irish Times, which acknowledges criticism that too many students are choosing higher education over options such as apprenticeships and further education courses …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 9 March]

“It’s CAO season and tens of thousands of school-leavers are choosing their higher education courses. Chances are that most will never stop to think about apprenticeships, traineeships or post-Leaving Cert courses as options. That’s partly because they don’t feature in the CAO system, which is operated by universities and institutes of technology …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 9 March]

Sir, – An old aphorism states that if you show me your chequebook, then I will show you your priorities. In his recent opinion piece ‘Why should students living at home subsidise those living in campus accommodation?’ (Education, March 3rd), the provost of Trinity College Dublin, Dr Patrick Prendergast, argues that recent rent increases in a number of Irish universities are necessary, because student accommodation must pay for itself …” (more)

[Domhnall McGlacken-Byrne, Irish Times, 9 March]

“The Government has today (Monday 9 March 2020) announced a €3 million pilot programme to improve energy efficiency and support decarbonisation in higher education institutions as part of targets in the Climate Action Plan. The programme is co-funded by the Department of Education and Skills and Department of Communications, Climate Action & Environment (DCCAE) under Project Ireland 2040, and administered through the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) and Higher Education Authority (HEA) …” (more)

[Department of Education and Skills, 9 March]