“Higher Education Minister Simon Harris is today announcing €5.5 million in funding for 41 research projects in Irish universities that will aim to improve the response to the pandemic …” (more)
[Hugh O’Connell, Independent, 24 September]
“Preprints are research reports have that have not yet been peer reviewed and accepted for publication. They have increased rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, high profile discredited studies have led to concerns that speed has been prioritized over the quality and credibility of evidence. Joeri Tijdink, Mario Malicki, Lex Bouter and Gowri Gopalakrishna argue that all stakeholders of the science system have a responsibility in improving the quality and credibility of pre-prints …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 23 September]
“Close your eyes, and visualize a time before debit cards, or Venmo, or Apple Pay. Imagine reaching into your wallet and pulling out a paper version of money once commonly used for transactions called cash. In your mind’s eye, look at the back of that money. What do you find? …” (more)
[Dawn Durante, The Scholarly Kitchen, 23 September]
“New research shows that female graduates in Ireland expect to earn up to 14% less than their male counterparts a year. The latest global talent market research by Irishjobs.ie, in partnership with employer brand specialist Universum, reveals a significant difference in the annual salary expectations of male and female graduates …” (more)
[RTÉ News, 22 September]
“Professors Luke O’Neill and Matt Cooper will share a windfall of up to €26m following the sale of the healthcare business they co-founded just four years ago …” (more)
[Ellie Donnelly, Independent, 22 September]
“Trust is the theme of this year’s Peer Review Week, and we can’t think of anything more important or timely. Peer review runs on trust. Trust is both a noun and a verb; both are central to how knowledge develops and is shared through research. And yet trust seems in short supply in our fractured and fraying world …” (more)
[Alice Meadows, Jasmine Wallace and Karin Wulf, The Scholarly Kitchen, 21 September]
“Academics should not be forced to squeeze their research into weekends and holidays, according to the Dutch education minister, who admitted that pressure on some researchers had become intolerable and that professional competition had gone ‘too far …” (more)
[David Matthews, Inside Higher Ed, 17 September]
“Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris today promised a ‘bright new era for research in Ireland’, saying that Ireland’s recent achievements in research funding should ‘only make us more ambitious’ …” (more)
[Jane Cook, University Times, 16 September]
“IReL has purchased journal backfile collections from Sage, American Medical Association and Wiley. Typically, our publisher subscription agreements do not give us access to all issues of a journal: our so-called frontfile entitlements give us access to issues published from the late 1990s (when journals first became available online) to present. The backfiles, issues published in print format before this date, were digitised and licensed separately …” (more)
[IReL, 16 September]
“One of the more surprising aspects of the Covid crisis – for me at any rate – is the fact there has been so much disagreement about the wearing of facemasks and the mode of transmission of Covid 19. Yes, it’s a new virus but it strikes me that given the threat that pathogens pose to mankind, one would have thought that the underlying physics of sprays and aerosols, not to mention the transport of particles through multilayer membranes might be very well understood at this stage, especially given the computing power at our disposal. But apparently not …” (more)
[Tales from Academia, 11 September]
Abstract: This paper examines students’ perspectives on the main transitional challenges experienced when commencing higher education. It explores which students are most affected by the transition and is the first paper to provide an overview of student recommendations to help improve the transition in an Irish context. The study involves large‐scale surveys and focus groups across four higher education institutions and explores a range of transitional challenges (including academic, social and course‐specific aspects). Over 1,100 student suggestions to improve transition are analysed and many of these recommendations could be easily implemented beyond Ireland. Ten overall recommendations are made which include, among others, specific supports for mature students and those with longer commuting distances, course‐specific introductory skills modules to be given by current students, a first year ‘starter’ pack with course‐specific orientation materials, and the introduction of a student‐shadowing programme for prospective students.
Eleanor Denny, Student views on transition to higher education in Ireland: Challenges, impacts and suggestions, Higher Education Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12273. First published: 6 September 2020.
“A key question for research universities is how the coronavirus pandemic will affect research and international collaboration in the future. How well has virtual communication worked and how will the expected financial stringency affect us? …” (more)
[David Bogle, University World News, 5 September]
“I very much enjoy being a peer reviewer. Reviewing manuscripts allows me to stay up to date on the most-current research in my field, and I feel a sense of accomplishment when helping authors to effectively disseminate their science. However, I have been discouraged by some comments from fellow reviewers that I’ve seen relayed to authors …” (more)
[Jeff Clements, Nature, 1 September]
“During the coronavirus pandemic, teachers, professors and parents worldwide have realised that we are falling behind in education, research and intellectual progress. How much will the pandemic slow the academic progress of each country and of the world? We could borrow and modify a parallel measurement from the medical field to measure the slowdown …” (more)
[John Richard Schrock, University World News, 7 August]
“Early last year, I interviewed Richard Gallagher, President and Editor-in-Chief of Annual Reviews about the organization’s rationale for pursuing open access (OA) and details of their Subscribe to Open approach. A few months ago, Lisa Hinchliffe offered us an update on Annual Reviews, providing both an expanded definition of Subscribe to Open and an overview of some of the advantages and challenges of the model …” (more)
[Ann Michael, The Scholarly Kitchen, 27 August]
Abstract: Research has noted an increase in negative workplace behaviours in the higher education sector between leaders and staff. A component of this change has been attributed to the managerial shift associated with faculty leadership roles. Positions such as dean are now sometimes filled via evidence of management experience when traditionally these roles were awarded to senior academics. This paper argues that the workplace divides between leaders employed due to management expertise (and with less regard to their research accomplishments) and academics has created new fault lines in institutional hierarchies that are impacting on intra‐faculty relationships as each group adjusts to contemporary institutional management strategies. Bourdieu’s notions of habitus, capital, and field are used to dissect these fault lines and hierarchical structures to assist in understanding why the leadership shift is causing divides, if the issue is likely to continue creating rifts, and if the divide can be repaired.
Troy Heffernan, Examining university leadership and the increase in workplace hostility through a Bourdieusian lens, Higher Education Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1111/hequ.12272. First published: 24 August 2020.
“The James Joyce library will provide limited study spaces for undergraduate students this trimester in an effort to comply with COVID-19 restrictions and physical distancing guidelines. Additionally, opening hours have been minimised and there is currently no access to other UCD library locations …” (more)
[Emma Hanrahan, College Tribune, 21 August]
“Women researchers are less likely to comment on academic work, and it shows a subtle gender bias in academia. If women are less likely to comment, they could be excluded from or marginalized in important scholarly debates and networks …” (more)
[Cary Wu, Rima Wilkes and Sylvia Fuller, Academic Matters, 19 August]
“The consultation process for a new national plan for research will begin ‘shortly’, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris said today. The plan will be the successor to Innovation 2020, which was launched as Ireland’s strategy for research in 2015 and aimed to build on existing infrastructures and encourage private-public collaborations …” (more)
[Cormac Watson, University Times, 19 August]
“Today, Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, announced a €4.3 million investment in the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme, providing funding for fifty enterprise-focused research awards …” (more)
[Rebecca Deasy-Millar, Trinity News, 17 August]
