“Researchers often complain about the indicators that hiring and grant committees use to judge them. In the past ten years, initiatives such as the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment and the Leiden Manifesto have pushed universities to rethink how and when to use publications and citations to assess research and researchers …” (more)
[Elizabeth Gadd, Nature, 24 November]
“We are living in a world with a growing housing crisis around the student population; something that is troubling to young people, parents, and guardians as a problem once someone reaches third-level education …” (more)
[Conor Capplis and others, College Tribune, 23 November]
“Earlier this year Prof Kerstin Mey shattered one of the highest and hardest glass ceilings there is in Ireland. Her appointment as president of University of Limerick in July ended a 428-year tradition of men only running Irish universities. By her own admission, the full significance of it only sank in later …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 24 November]
“Ad-hoc approach by individual colleges would ‘risk chaos for staff and students alike’. The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has called for a single, clear health and safety framework for any reopening of face-to-face teaching in the New Year, saying that without it college administrations are currently planning in a vacuum and devising contradictory measures related to preventing the spread of Covid-19 …” (more)
[IFUT, 23 November]
“An application for technological university status is expected from GMIT, Sligo and Letterkenny, by the end of the year. Last month, €5.7 million was allocated to the Connacht Ulster Alliance consortium in a bid to assist with the application for the designation …” (more)
[Galway Bay FM, 23 November]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of the transfer of research and innovation components from Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment; when the transfer will be complete; if the units as they currently exist in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment will be transferred in their entirety; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 19 November]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated surplus of the National Training Fund for 2020; the total surplus of the National Training Fund at the end of 2019; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 19 November]
“Taking care of some medical ‘business’ today so can’t really work as such. So I thought I’d have a rant about higher education. The decline in state funding for higher education over the last 10 to 15 years has had one major effect: institutions must now operate as quasi-corporations. I’ve never seen this as some sort of neoliberal takeover, more like a case of needs must …” (more)
[Tales from Academia, 23 November]
“Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar has ruled out significant pay rises for government employees in the next public service agreement. But he described pay inequality for post-2012 recruits as an unfair ‘running sore’, which had never been intended to last forever …” (more)
[Ingrid Miley, RTÉ News, 23 November]
“A new technological university with a student population of up to 15,000 students across six campuses has taken a step closer after Limerick Institute of Technology and Athlone Institute of Technology formally submitted its application to Government today …” (more)
[Cathy Halloran, RTÉ News, 23 November]
“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris today (Monday) welcomed the application to establish a new technological university in the Midlands and Mid-West from Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology …” (more)
[gov.ie, 23 November]
“The digital divide off campus has been ‘catastrophic’ for large groups of students around the world, but the return to campuses has also been ‘hit and miss’ in different contexts, even in rich countries, according to Roberta Malee Bassett, the global tertiary lead and senior education specialist for the World Bank …” (more)
[Brendan O’Malley, University World News, 21 November]
“The number of students living at Queen’s University in Belfast has fallen ‘marginally’ amid the pandemic. A reduction in the number of twin rooms and international students arriving on campus later were partly responsible, the institution said …” (more)
[Michael McHugh, Belfast Telegraph, 22 November]
“Trinity is extending its coronavirus testing scheme to ‘key groups of staff’, including people working in College Health, the Day Nursery and Estates and Facilities on a phased basis. At present, only residents of Halls and on-campus accommodation can avail of the service …” (more)
[Cormac Watson, University Times, 21 November]
“Students have never exactly been at the forefront of governmental worries. For a government long-submerged by a variety of under-funded sectors of society, issues facing higher education institutions and students have found themselves collecting dust on the shelves of governments of past and present …” (more)
[Faye Curran, University Times, 21 November]
“University governing bodies will be smaller and feature more external members under new legislation to be published next year, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said. He said current legislation on higher education governance is ‘not fit for purpose and does not reflect the world in which we live’ …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 20 November]
“The young people of Waterford should ‘accept no less’ than a commitment on behalf of the Government to adequate funding of the TUSE project, Green Party TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh has said. Speaking in the Dáil on Thursday 19 November, Mr Ó Cathasaigh said the Technological University for the South East is a ‘project so important in terms of balanced regional development’ that it is specifically referenced twice within the Programme for Government and that is must receive adequate funding going forward …” (more)
[Jade Wilson, Waterford News and Star, 19 November]
“Plans by University College Cork (UCC) to substantially boost its student accommodation offering in time for the 2021/2022 academic year have been derailed by Covid-19 restrictions. The delay means the university has missed the target date originally set to complete the 255-bed-space accommodation units at the site of the former Crow’s Nest public house and restaurant in Victoria Cross …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 20 November]
“University College Dublin (UCD) has launched a Diversity Screen programme, asking staff to divulge personal information to track diversity progress. The voluntary scheme asks staff members to report their gender, sexuality, date of birth, ethnicity, nationality, religion, civil status, family status and disability. The information is not mandatory to divulge, however, UCD is seeking to track their progress on implementing Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) goals …” (more)
[Conor Capplis, College Tribune, 20 November]
“Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael): I very much welcome the opportunity to update the House on some of the work of the new Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science just under five months on from its creation and the formation of the Government. I very much appreciate the support and interest from all sides of the Oireachtas for a new stand-alone Department to place a renewed focus on the further and higher education sectors and enhance and develop research and innovation …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 19 November]
