Ninth Level Ireland

“LYIT President Paul Hannigan says that the IT cannot refuse entry to any of their courses based on a student’s vaccination status. Speaking to Greg Hughes on this morning’s Nine Til Noon Show, Hannigan said that while the college has no definite plan in place at the moment, it has received legal advice …” (more)

[Highland Radio, 17 June]

“A Leaving Certificate student’s High Court challenge over a refusal to allow private tutors assist in assessing his calculated grades will not be heard until July 2nd. The boy, who cannot be named, had received private tutoring because he had not been attending his school after refusing to obey a requirement that he wear a face mask in the common areas …” (more)

[BreakingNews.ie, 16 June]

“Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD has today (Tuesday) published the plan for a safe return to on-site activity for September 2021. Higher and further education and training, and research, are essential activities, and the plan for the 2021/22 academic year is for mainly on-site activity for all students, learners, and staff …” (more)

[MerrionStreet.ie, 16 June]

“The IUA warmly welcomes the publication of the Plan for a safe return for further and higher education and research in 2021/22 by Minister Simon Harris. Staff and students in our universities eagerly anticipate a safe return to as comprehensive a range of on-campus activities as possible for the next academic year, including large scale teaching …” (more)

[IUA, 15 June]

“The Union of Students in Ireland welcomes the plan published today, which aims to re-open campuses and have most third-level activity back on site from the start of the new academic year. Along with getting students back into lectures and classrooms, that the plan also allows for the reopening of libraries, cafes, canteens and bars, as well as the restarting of club, society and sporting activity is particularly welcome …” (more)

[USI, 15 June]

“The Irish Government has just produced its plan for A Safe Return to on-site further and higher education and research that outlines what is basically a full return to on-campus activity from September 2021. I quote from the preamble to the document linked to above …” (more)

[In the Dark, 15 June]

“On 29 April 2021 the government made a commitment to a significant increase in on-site further education and training, higher education and research from the beginning of the next academic year. Higher and further education and training, and research are essential activities, and so the plan for 2021/22 is for mainly on-site activity for all students, learners, and staff …” (more)

[gov.ie, 15 June]

“Large-scale lectures are set to resume as the Government gives the green light for the reopening of college campuses in September. After more than a year of online learning, all students in higher and further education will be back on site in the autumn. Chief medical officer Tony Holohan has told Minister Simon Harris that colleges can prepare for the resumption of maximum attendances, including large-scale lectures …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 15 June]

“We’ve at last staggered to the end of a week dominated by Examination matters. For myself that consisted of preliminary Examination Boards for Theoretical Physics and Engineering (for which we teach modules in Engineering Mathematics) followed by Final Examination Boards in both subjects with External Examiners present. Those final meetings both took place today so it’s been a particularly busy end of the week …” (more)

[In the Dark, 11 June]

“Second-level student leaders say teaching of first years in third-level colleges must start no earlier than September 27, following the announcement that Leaving Cert result won’t issue until September 3. Colleges have been reviewing their schedules and some, including UCD, DCU, UCC, NUI Galway and Maynooth University, have decided on a September 27 start for tuition, but details are awaited from across the sector …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 10 June]

“Sir, – This year, a pandemic year, more than 700 lecturers and teaching support staff were nominated by students and colleagues for the DCU President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. A close reading of the nominations indicated that this extraordinarily high level of satisfaction was not at all driven by grade inflation but by a genuine recognition by (mainly) students that lecturers and colleagues had gone the extra mile to ensure that our students received the best possible education under very difficult circumstances …” (more)

[Letters, Irish Times, 10 June]

“Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has said he expects students and staff to be back on campus for the new academic year. Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Harris said he also expects that most students returning to college will have been fully vaccinated, ‘and obviously staff generally being older than the students should also be overwhelmingly vaccinated’ …” (more)

[RTÉ News, 3 June]

“Tens of thousands of Leaving Cert students will have to wait until early September before receiving their results and CAO offers. Minister for Education Norma Foley has confirmed that students will be able to access their results online on Friday, September 3rd. It is likely that CAO round one offers for college applicants will follow shortly afterwards in the week beginning Monday, September 6th …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 2 June]

“The coming academic year will be like no other in the history of further and higher education, both within Ireland and internationally. Third-year undergraduate students will be returning to colleges they last attended in person in March 2020 during the early weeks of semester two in their fresher year …” (more)

[Brian Mooney, Irish Times, 1 June]

“Dublin City University: What they use: A range of digital tools and platforms as part of Loop, with Moodle at the core. Zoom for live teaching, Mahara for eportfolios and Unicam to support video and rich media learning …” (more)

[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 1 June]

“The teaching of foreign languages is to be introduced to primary schools from third class onwards on a pilot basis. The ‘language sampler module’ will be targeted at third- to sixth-class pupils in more than 100 primary and special schools …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 31 May]

“The internet brought us access to almost the entire body of human knowledge, a previously unimaginable ability to connect, share and collaborate. It was inevitable that this would transform the educational landscape, creating a linguistically and culturally diverse learning environment. Fundamentally this environment would of course be open to all, so why hasn’t this occurred? …” (more)

[Ellen McCabe, Irish Times, 27 May]

“If you told teachers in 2019 that the Leaving Cert exams would be cancelled and they’d all be marking their own students, they might have laughed at you and then threatened to strike. But now, in the second year of the pandemic, teachers are – reluctantly, in many cases – set to mark their own students again …” (more)

[Peter McGuire, Irish Times, 25 May]

“With some universities returning to face-to-face teaching this year, ANU Vice Chancellor Brian Schmidt noted that, while his university was one of them, lectures would be much less common and not a ‘crutch for poor pedagogy’ …” (more)

[Christopher Charles Deneen and Michael Cowling, The Conversation, 20 May]

“It’s Friday 14th May 2021 which means that it’s the first day of the Summer examination period here in Maynooth, so let me begin by sending my best wishes to everyone taking examinations today and over the next few weeks, wherever you are. It’s a lovely morning in Maynooth. It seems to be a law of Nature that examinations always take place when the weather outside is nice …” (more)

[In the Dark, 14 May]