Ninth Level Ireland

“I’ve been teaching in third level since I was 23 and at the end of every year since I first started, I’ve had a nagging sense that I could have done better. I started each year full of enthusiasm and ready to try new approaches but I invariably I found that half-way through the second semester, fatigue set in and the quality of my teaching began to slip …” (more)

[Tales from Academia, 10 February]

“The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) has imposed a €70,000 fine on University College Dublin (UCD) for failure to implement appropriate security measures; storing data longer than necessary, and delaying in notifying the DPC of a data breach. This is the sixth GDPR fine imposed by the DPC …” (more)

[Davinia Brennan, Ireland IP & Technology Law Blog, 10 February]

“Second-level teachers represented by the ASTI trade union have voted decisively to reject the proposed new public service pay agreement. In a ballot, which concluded on Wednesday, ASTI members voted against the new deal by 79% to 21%. ASTI president Ann Piggott said the proposed agreement did not resolve the problem of unequal pay in teaching, an issue which the union had been pursuing for more than a decade …” (more)

[Martin Wall, Irish Times, 10 February]

“A new report, published by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) today, has revealed that the number of students at Irish higher educational institutions has steadily increased and that there is now a higher proportion of female students attending Universities or Associate/Affiliate Colleges than men. The report – The Social and Living Conditions of Higher Education Students in Ireland – is part of the Eurostudent VII Report, which collates comparable data on student life across Europe …” (more)

[Maura O’Shea, HEA, 10 February]

“The University experience for Irish women has progressed drastically over the past century. Isabel Marion Weir Johnston, the first woman to register to study at Trinity, was not allowed to attend lectures and she was only permitted to sit exams. For decades women were not allowed to join all-male societies, had to dine separately from men and were subject to curfews …” (more)

[Emma Nevin, The College View, 10 February]

“In 2020, as the first few months of the Covid-19 pandemic raged, students campaigned using coordinated social media actions, petitions and huge online rallies, to cancel the Leaving Cert and won. Now in early 2021, student action has put the cancellation of the Leaving Cert on the agenda, pressured opposition parties to somewhat support students’ demands, and cornered the government into making a decision next week …” (more)

[Keishia Taylor, Shane Finnan and Conor Tormey, Socialist Party, 10 February]

“There will be no mass return of students to third-level campuses in the current academic year. Depending on public health advice, there may be opportunities for more students to attend for small group teaching or other activities, but lecture theatres won’t fill until autumn, at the earliest …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 10 February]

“The University of Limerick (UL) is to facilitate on-campus Covid-19 tests in a bid to prevent further transmission of the virus among students. The tests, carried out by HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare, come in response to a reported rise in cases of the disease in recent weeks in the Castletroy area of the city. These are believed to be associated with students in off-campus accommodation …” (more)

[Nick Rabbitts, Limerick Leader, 9 February]

“NUI Galway has once again come under fire for its €295 exam repeat fee. Students who need to repeat an exam have to pay a flat fee of €295, and repeating one exam costs the same as repeating six. NUI Galway Students’ Union has criticised the fee, saying that the majority of the repeat exams will take place off-campus and students will be using their own laptops …” (more)

[Aine Kenny, Irish Examiner, 10 February]

“Who do you think is winning, who are you up for? Who do you think started it? And, of course, what do you make of our new fellow South-Easterners in Wicklow, Kildare and Laois? Are you a closet greater Dublin area hater, probably an unacceptable form of racism? After all, they have had a warm welcome for our children for years …” (more)

[Waterford News and Star, 9 February]

“In early 2021, Minister for Education Norma Foley’s inconsistent, reactive decision-making regarding schools’ reopening became a focal point of public governmental criticism. In the shadow of that issue lives the seemingly forgotten, nebulous state of third-level education. Simon Harris, Ireland’s first Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science somehow escapes much of the critique aimed at Minister Foley …” (more)

[Oisin Magfhogartaigh, College Tribune, 9 February]