Ninth Level Ireland

“The Government must declare shortages of student housing and high rents an emergency as students consider deferring or dropping out of college, the Union of Students of Ireland (USI) has said. Students held a demonstration outside the Dáil on Wednesday as part of an overnight sleep-out and campaign dubbed ‘No Keys, No Degrees’ to put pressure on the Government to take urgent action …” (more)

[Simon Carswell, Irish Times, 23 September]

“Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the government is ‘very much aware’ of the crisis in student accommodation and that it is working to prevent purpose-built student apartments being used for tourists. A student protest using the slogan ‘No Keys, No Degrees’ is being held outside Leinster House this afternoon …” (more)

[Rónán Duffy, TheJournal.ie, 23 September]

“University College Dublin has issued a public tender to Ireland’s biggest banks as AIB’s time in Belfield has come to an end after 22 years with the campus bank being empty for the first time since 1973 …” (more)

[Hugh Dooley, College Tribune, 23 September]

“Two Irish universities have been named among the world’s top 100 for graduate employability. Global higher education analysis firm Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) has today released its annual QS Graduate Employability Rankings for 2022 …” (more)

[Steven Heaney, Irish Examiner, 23 September]

“The president of Dublin City University (DCU) has said a core part of the Government’s Housing for All plan aimed at solving the student accommodation crisis is ‘uneconomic’ and would only result in rents that were ‘beyond the ability to pay’ for most students and their families …” (more)

[Eoghan Moloney, Independent, 23 September]

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, TD, has today announced five performance funding awards totalling €5 million to higher education institutions in recognition of positive performance in working towards national strategic objectives. Each award is valued at €1 million …” (more)

[Maura O’Shea, HEA, 23 September]

“The Union of Students in Ireland is to demonstrate outside the Dáil and sleep out overnight to urge the Government to address shortages in student accommodation. It said students are being forced to defer or drop out of their third-level courses …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 23 September]

“The road from the new Garrycastle Roundabout to Wash House Turn Roundabout in Athlone has been renamed University Road in anticipation of the Midlands’ first university opening its doors on Oct 1. A submission was made by AIT in June following a call by Cllr Aengus O’Rourke to the public to name seven roads in Athlone without official place names …” (more)

[Athlone Advertiser, 23 September]

“The University of Limerick has confirmed it is to continue funding additional garda patrols in the Castletroy area following a meeting with residents and other stakeholders. The meeting was arranged in the wake of some chaotic scenes in private housing estates following the return of students after the summer …” (more)

[David Hurley, Limerick Leader, 23 September]

“This evening. Trinity College, Dublin. Members of Students 4 Change protest outside of Trinity College Dublin’s Dinning Hall in protest over the rona-related lack of in person classroom tuition …” (more)

[Broadsheet, 22 September]

“Thousands of third-level students are sleeping on couches, paying market rates for hotel rooms or deferring their entry to university due to a severe shortage of student accommodation …” (more)

[Luke Byrne and Hugh O’Connell, Independent, 23 September]

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD and Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD have today announced 11 pop up vaccination centres will be established across colleges next week. The clinics will provide first or second doses and will be provided to students and staff as walk-in clinics during Vaccination Week …” (more)

[DFHERIS, 22 September]

“Paula Bradshaw (Alliance): The House will be very familiar with complaints about the Holylands area of South Belfast, with the all-night partying, the risk of COVID being spread and waste being dumped in alleyways. In addition, I was made aware overnight that a young woman was followed home. I have seen the footage of her front door having been kicked in by a man …” (more)

[Northern Ireland Assembly, 21 September]

“Lynn Ruane (Independent): I move: That Seanad Éireann: calls for a debate on the bullying and sexual harassment that exists for faculty, students and staff in Ireland’s third-level institutions; notes that third-level institutions should not support the use of non-disclosure agreements, which limits accountability of perpetrators, in such instances; and calls on the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to commit that such issues when they arise, will be dealt with in a holistic and trauma-informed manner …” (more)

[Seanad debates, 21 September]

“Pop-up vaccination centres are to be established on third level campuses across Cork next week. Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris TD and Minister for Health, Stephen Donnelly TD have today announced 11 pop up vaccination centres for colleges across the country …” (more)

[Maeve Lee, EchoLive, 22 September]

“Students flooded Front Square this evening to protest the continuation of online teaching in College. Around 200 students gathered at the Dining Hall chanting ‘let us in’ and ‘face to face’ …” (more)

[Jody Druce and Emma Taggart, University Times, 22 September]

“Irish third-level institutions are using public money in non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) ‘to silence victims of discrimination and sexual harassment’, the Seanad has been told. Independent Senator Lynn Ruane, who in June introduced legislation to ban the use of such confidentiality agreements, has conducted research including a survey which, she said, confirmed the use of NDAs in third-level institutions …” (more)

[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 22 September]

“The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) will stage a sleepout protest in front of the Dáil on Thursday, calling for government action on the student accommodation crisis. The union is calling for additional funding and planning for purpose-built student accommodation, no new course places to be given without living spaces provided, legislation to retain student accommodation beds and as the introduction of rent controls …” (more)

[Jody Druce, University Times, 21 September]

“Trinity has not bathed itself in glory since classes returned on September 13. The issue of this newspaper published on September 7 featured an editorial decrying the administrative incompetence displayed by College year after year, amplified in particular by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, things have only gotten worse, significantly so …” (more)

[Trinity News, 21 September]

“With demand for third-level accommodation at an all-time high, it’s emerged a former student housing complex near Mary Immaculate College is boarded up. Despite students checking into hotels at a rate of almost €400 a week, former student halls at Ashbourne Avenue, which has space for up to 81 beds, remains out of use …” (more)

[Nick Rabbitts, Limerick Leader, 20 September]