“Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if his attention has been drawn to plans to close the business school at the GMIT Mayo campus; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills further to Parliamentary Question No 236 of 14 October 2020, if Dublin Technical University currently holds no debt; if he plans to create a borrowing framework for the technological universities to allow them to borrow in the future; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 October]
“Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the engagements he has had with Science Foundation Ireland in relation to its participation in the Department of Foreign Affair’s Ireland House strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 October]
“As we enter a six week period of Level 5 restrictions in Ireland I thought I’d post a quick update about Maynooth University Library Cat just to reassure readers that he is doing fine. Yesterday I passed by his post on the way to my 2pm lecture in Physics Hall …” (more)
[In the Dark, 22 October]
“The largest public service union, Fórsa has warned of potential industrial relations chaos in the new year after the current Public Service Stability Agreement expires in December. Formal negotiations on a successor deal between the Government and public service unions have yet to get under way …” (more)
[Ingrid Miley, RTÉ News, 22 October]
“In Dublin, the average cost of a room in a shared property is €680, up 0.3% on the same time last year, while in other parts of the country, room rents are €462, up 2.8% on average year-on-year. Nationally, rents for full properties rose by 1.2% in the year to July but were largely unchanged in Dublin city, rising by just 0.2% …” (more)
[Athlone Advertiser, 22 October]
“Permission has been granted for a five storey student accommodation development on Orchard Road in Cork. An Bord Pleanála has granted permission for the construction of the development which includes 20 student apartments in three blocks with a total of 216 bed spaces comprising one four-bed apartment, 10 six-bed apartments, and 19 eight-bed apartments …” (more)
[Breda Graham, EchoLive, 22 October]
“Students from Trinity are among the least likely to receive a Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) grant in a comparison of students around the country. According to a recent report by the Department of Public Expenditure, students from Trinity, University College Dublin (UCD) and the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland (RCSI) are the least likely to receive grant-aid, with only 5-25% being entitled to receive Student Universal Support Ireland (SUSI) grants …” (more)
[Shannon Connolly, Trinity News, 22 October]
“At this time of year, I have lots of meetings with second-year students who must complete a term paper on a biotechnology-related topic of their choice. The conversation typically centres around issues like structure, scientific writing, and information sources. One of the issues that I often stress is that science is not an impersonal, dispassionate activity: in fact, it is a very human one …” (more)
[Tales from Academia, 22 October]
“As I noted yesterday, the Canadian post-secondary sector seems to be in a deep public funding rut. We’re in the 12th year of flat budgets, and no political party – whether in government or opposition – seems inclined to reverse this. What to do? Well, in the strategic planning business, the first thing you look for are goals. The second thing you look for are barriers to those goals …” (more)
Alex Usher, HESA, 22 October]
“In 2018, the Irish Medical Council gave Trinity’s School of Medicine two years to fix a ream of problems facing students on badly planned placements – in which students faced high stress in an under-supervised environment – before the council’s assessors returned to decide whether or not College should keep its accreditation …” (more)
[Cormac Watson and Molly Furey, University Times, 21 October]
“Michael Lowry (Tipperary, Independent): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his objectives and plans to grant technological university status further to an application by Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology; his views on the application which will incorporate the satellite campuses of Thurles and Clonmel, County Tipperary; the budget available to implement plans for this project; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil debates, 20 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the mechanisms he has explored to ensure students in both on-campus and off-campus accommodation will receive full refunds for unused accommodation; the institutes of higher education and accommodation providers that have agreed to give refunds; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more, and even more)
[Dáil debates, 20 October]
“Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the engagement he has had with the HEA in relation to a GMIT decision to redeploy the GMIT Mayo campus business department to Galway with staff now reporting to Galway management; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 October]
“Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the reason no specific plan was put in place to address the disadvantage faced by the 8,000 students who sat the leaving certificate prior to 2020; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 October]
“Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the degree to which bullying has been identified in academia; the actions taken in response; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 October]
“Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to build or expand a higher education institute on the north side of Cork city …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 20 October]
“Five of the State’s seven universities have confirmed they will refund students who leave their third-level accommodation, Minister for Higher Education Simon Harris has said …” (more)
[Marie O’Halloran, Irish Times, 21 October]
“Holly Cairns TD, Social Democrats spokesperson for Further and Higher Education, has called on the Government to immediately address the impact of Level 5 restrictions on third level students …” (more)
[Elaine Murphy, TheCork.ie, 21 October]
“I’m old enough to have studied in the old UCD School of Engineering, now government buildings, in Merrion Street, Dublin 2. It was never as plush as it is now: the toilets had swing doors on them like the doors to a saloon in an old western movie and the canteen was deep in the basement and served oxtail soup every day …” (more)
[Tales from Academia, 21 October]
