“News today that Trinity College are to move all lectures to on-line delivery (see ‘Trinity cancels lectures in bid to limit coronavirus threat’ seems like a very sensible move given the threat of the Covid 19 spreading to Staff and Students. Other Colleges have yet to follow suit …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 10 March]
“Sinn Féin’s Climate Action Spokesperson, Caoimhe Archibald MLA, has written to the senior management of Queen’s University Belfast and Ulster University seeking a commitment from both institutions to divest from fossil fuels. The East Derry MLA said …” (more)
[Sinn Féin, 10 March]
“Faked screenshots were circulated this afternoon showing Trinity publishing an exam contingency plan on its website in which students are awarded a grade of 65 in the event that exams are cancelled. A Trinity spokesperson confirmed to Trinity News that the communications team knows of no such exam plans and College did not publish this information on the website …” (more)
[Aisling Grace, Trinity News, 10 March]
“Trinity College has announced the closure of all of its tourist attractions and moved all of its lectures online following a case of Covid-19 on its campus. The Dublin university, which has its main campus on College Green in the city centre, said that from today Book of Kells exhibition and Old Library, the Science Gallery and the Douglas Hyde Gallery will all be closed to the public …” (more)
[Laura Lyne, Dublin Live, 10 March]
“At a meeting of Cork City Council last night, two motions were passed expressing the council’s opposition to rent hikes in student accommodation operated by University College Cork (UCC). The first motion stated that Cork City Council would ‘write to the governing body of UCC to register our disagreement with the proposed rent increases in student accommodation …'” (more)
[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 10 March]
“Two third-level institutions in Dublin have decided to make changes to their schedules in reaction to the coronavirus. Dublin City University has postponed indefinitely Spring graduation ceremonies that were due to take place later this month …” (more)
[RTÉ News, 10 March]
“Well, the narration took a while. I got distracted by my fridge which started to make a weird noise. Then the phone range – twice! Lessons learned! However, it’s no harm if a little bit of humanity is injected into online lectures. Perfection isn’t necessary just like it isn’t in face-to-face lectures …” (more)
[Education and other Things, 10 March]
“Global university rankings have been with us since Shanghai Jiao Tong University started its list of the world’s best universities back in 2003. The annual rankings have struck fear into the hearts of many a university president, and transformed perceptions of higher education around the world. Ireland is not the only European country to have been shocked to see its its institutions sliding downwards …” (more)
[Lara Marlowe, Irish Times, 10 March]
“Almost 73,000 applications for third-level courses were received by the CAO (Central Applications Office) by its 1 February closing date, a figure that is on a par with last year’s data. The number of students applying to study nursing or midwifery has declined this year by 8%, while numbers wishing to train as second-level teachers has risen by 10% …” (more)
[Emma O Kelly, RTÉ News, 10 March]
“A total of 72,973 applications were received by the Central Applications Office (CAO) by the due date of 1 February this year, a decrease of 61 on last year. Of this number, 7,273 applications came from students who were over 23 years of age – down 560 (-7.1%) applications from last year …” (more)
[The Journal.ie, 10 March]
“Trinity has instructed some staff members to work from home on a temporary basis to ‘assess whether this is possible should it become necessary in future’, to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. An email, sent to all staff and students, states that some staff in Trinity’s IT Services department have already begun to work from home …” (more)
[Finn Purdy, Trinity News, 9 March]
