Ninth Level Ireland

“University of Limerick has said most students will be allowed on campus for just one week each month when the new academic year gets underway in September. In addition, it says almost all lectures will be delivered online – during on and off-campus weeks – due to space constraints created by physical distancing requirements …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 July]

“On July 8th, Deputy President and Registrar of University College Dublin (UCD) Mark Rogers announced to current students via email the plan for the upcoming academic year, stating that ‘your education remains our top priority’ …” (more)

[Luke Murphy, College Tribune, 8 July]

“Trinity’s years-long partnership with Bank of Ireland will cease on July 31st, with the bank’s on-campus branch and ATMs set to close permanently next month …” (more)

[Emer Moreau and Molly Furey, University Times, 8 July]

“Earlier this year, French physician and microbiologist Didier Raoult generated a media uproar over his controversial promotion of hydroxychloroquine to treat COVID-19. The researcher has long pointed to his growing list of publications and high number of citations as an indication of his contribution to science, all summarized in his ‘h-index’ …” (more)

[Yves Gingras and Mahdi Khelfaoui, The Conversation, 8 July]

“A man who lodged over €155,000 of a university’s money into his own bank account has received a fully suspended sentence. Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that John Cullen, 61, was ‘used by others’ to lodge funds stolen from University College Cork (UCC) in exchange for ‘a very small reward’ …” (more)

[Brion Hoban, BreakingNews.ie, 8 July]

“Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has today said that he is ‘eager to push forward with the technological university agenda’. In a tweet, Harris said that technological universities were a ‘priority for government’ …” (more)

[Cormac Watson, University Times, 8 July]

“College applications for high-points courses such as law, veterinary medicine, dentistry and physiotherapy are up significantly this year, as students flock towards areas of study with strong job prospects. By contrast, the number of students applying for courses in areas such as arts, humanities and languages are down again this year …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 July]

“Parents of students at the University of Limerick have expressed outrage over plans for the new academic semester. Students were informed this Wednesday of the details of the university’s Academic Calendar Model for Autumn 2020 which is based on a ‘blended learning approach’ in light of the Covid-19 pandemic …” (more)

[Aine Fitzgerald, Limerick Leader, 8 July]

“Harvard University, along with MIT, has filed suit to block a Trump Administration policy banning international students at colleges and universities conducting classes online from staying in the United States. ‘We believe that the ICE order is bad public policy, and we believe that it is illegal’, said Harvard President Lawrence Bacow in a message to the university community Wednesday morning …” (more)

[Erin Tiernan, Boston Herald, 8 July]

“The Supreme Court has ruled the ESB was guilty of negligence concerning extensive flood damage to buildings on the campus of University College Cork (UCC) after floods affected Cork city in 2009. UCC’s action over the damage is among about 400 sets of proceedings initiated against the ESB arising from the flooding …” (more)

[Ann O’Loughlin, Irish Examiner, 8 July]

“On Monday 6 July, The United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that any exchange students that are currently studying or beginning to study for Autumn in America must leave the country or risk deportation. The ruling states that any colleges that are to run exclusively online learning from now and in the upcoming semester cannot take any exchange students …” (more)

[Luke Murphy, College Tribune, 7 July]

“This afternoon, Annie Hoey, who is a former Union of Students’ in Ireland (USI) President, has been announced as the Labour Party spokesperson on Higher Education, Innovation and Science. Hoey is a Labour Party politician who has been a Senator for the Agricultural Panel since April 2020 …” (more)

[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 7 July]

“Students in disadvantaged secondary schools are three times more likely to have disengaged with their teachers during the lockdown, according to a new study. The survey of more than 700 second level teachers by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, throws new light on the scale of the digital divide across schools since they closed last March …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 8 July]

“Queen’s University has chartered a jumbo jet at a cost of around £600,000 to bring hundreds of students directly from China to Belfast in September, the Irish News can reveal. It comes amid fears that a drastic loss of income from its international student intake would leave a hole in its budget running into millions of pounds …” (more)

[Gary McDonald, Irish News, 8 July]

“A new framework for reporting sexual assault anonymously on college campuses will be rolled out at the end of September, its developer Gertie Raftery has said …” (more)

[Molly Furey, University Times, 7 July]

“Foreign students in the United States – numbering in the hundreds of thousands – will have to leave the country if their classes are all taught online this autumn or if they transfer to another school with in-person instruction, a government agency has said …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 7 July]