“So here I am in my office while the first batch of our repeat examinations gets under way here in Maynooth. They seem to have started correctly so I’ve taken a break to have a cup of coffee and catch up on the news …” (more)
[In the Dark, 12 August]
“For many years, the notional ’40/40/20′ arrangement that many tenured academics are employed under – allowing the equivalent of two days a week dedicated to teaching, two to research and one to service and community engagement – has been creaking under the mounting administrative demands that higher education institutions make on their staff …” (more)
[John Ross and Anna McKie, Times Higher Education, 12 August]
“Minister for Education Norma Foley has moved to reassure thousands of Leaving Cert students that the new calculated grades system will be ‘accurate, reliable and fair to all students’. Her comments follow controversy in Scotland after the government reversed the downgrading of almost 125,000 students’ calculated grades based on teachers’ predictions …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien and Patsy McGarry, Irish Times, 11 August]
“Personal data belonging to former Maynooth University students, including their dates of birth, addresses and educational information, may have been stolen during a cybercriminal hacking attack last May …” (more)
[Laura Coates, Leinster Leader, 11 August]
“Timed written examinations continue to dominate university assessment. In most professions, the need to recall and write down specific information from memory under timed conditions is rare. Yet every year across the world students are crammed into exam halls to do just that …” (more)
[Naomi Winstone and David Boud, The Conversation, 11 August]
“Trinity Sport Centre and its outdoor campus facilities have reopened today with reduced operating hours and new social distancing measures in place. A one-way system has been introduced for entering and exiting the gym, which must be accessed through the Westland Row gate. Members are being asked to adhere to the two-metre social distancing markers and directional arrows …” (more)
[Shannon McGreevy, Trinity News, 12 August]
“Ever since I was a child, I have listened to politicians talk about a University for Waterford and for the region. For decades, the demand for educational equality for the South East has fallen on deaf ears. Moves championed as one step forward in reality were two steps back …” (more)
[David Cullinane, Waterford News and Star, 8 August]
“On my first night at a former poly in the mid-90s, I somehow managed to find myself in a dreary conversation in the SU bar with some posh people trying to outdo each other with tales of them taking a year out to build schools and going ‘interrailing’ …” (more)
[Jim Dickinson, Wonkhe, 12 August]
“Sir, – I completely agree with Paul Gosling (‘How best to remember John Hume’, Letters, August 8th) that an independent university in Derry, for which John Hume campaigned early in his political career, would be a worthy tribute to one of Ireland’s greatest statesmen …” (more)
[Peter Pyne, Irish Times, 12 August]
