Ninth Level Ireland

“The National College of Ireland is in ongoing discussions with Dublin City Council regarding the former Magdalene Laundry on Sean McDermott Street, TheJournal.ie understands. The council said it is consulting stakeholders and ‘interested parties’, including NCI, at the moment over the future of the site, the last such laundry to close in the State …” (more)

[TheJournal.ie, 12 October]

“It must be summer time – the Leaving and Junior Certificate exams start today. Despite the wet weather we have been having recently, the coverage of the start of the exams and the multitudes of advice being given – tells us all that summer is on the way. At the National College of Ireland exams were over a couple of weeks ago and should be most graded by now – again, a feeling of summer is in the air …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 5 June]

“Sir, – Olive Byrne, UCC’s access officer, points out that ‘if reading scores from a local primary [school] are below average, that’s where the targeting needs to happen’ (Peter McGuire, ‘Mind the gap: Tackling the class divide at third level’, Education, March 6th). Here in the National College of Ireland, we believe that early intervention and partnership with parents are the answers to closing the class divide at third level …” (more)

[Josephine Bleach, Irish Times, 12 March]

“With the whole country shutting down and joking about bread for sale on Donedeal, it was inevitable that NCI would close too because of the bad weather. Many of our students travel long distances to College and it would have been unfair to expect them to attend lectures. Classes for Thursday and Friday are also cancelled. Interestingly, online classes are cancelled too …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 28 February]

“It’s Friday of the last week of semester one and I have now finished all classes – this was the 31st semester that I have completed in NCI. The last week of a semester always gives me mixed feelings in that as each day passes I have a last lecture/tutorial with each class in turn. Some I will see in class again in semester two, others not. They say that time flies if you are having fun …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 15 December]

“The National College of Ireland (NCI) is looking to secure Government funding to build a second campus in Dublin city centre. The college wants to double its spaces in computer and IT courses to address a skills shortage in the capital’s financial and tech sectors. NCI is seeking to purchase land near the IFSC and develop a multimillion 10,000 sq m campus to take on 1,500 new students in the short-term …” (more)

[Jack Power, Irish Times, 27 May]

“A lecturer who claimed he was defamed in a letter sent by his college authorities to about 100 students has settled his High Court action. Keith Maycock, a computer science lecturer, sued the National College of Ireland (NCI), International Financial Services Centre, Dublin …” (more)

[Irish Times, 17 May]

“A lecturer told the High Court it was ‘unbelievable’ that grades on eight dissertations for a Masters programme in his college would be marked down by 10% across the board …” (more)

[Ann O’Loughlin, BreakingNews.ie, 16 May]

“For the first time in my 14 years at National College of Ireland, I will not be attending our annual Graduation Ceremony being held at the National Convention Centre today. I have an almost full schedule of classes during both the morning and afternoon conferrals, so this year I am working with next year’s graduates! …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 18 November]

“It is officially the end of Semester 1 today – I have just finished my last class (I have a re-scheduled class next week due to a postponement earlier in the semester). For students and faculty alike, it is a day that took 13 long weeks to arrive since we started last September …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 11 December]

“It’s 5 o’clock on Friday at the end of our first week back in Semester 1 and I have finished classes for the week. This year I am teaching Statistics (to three groups), Project Management, and a new module on the Fundamentals of Business Analysis …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 18 September]

“The cost of renting college campus accommodation in Ireland is to rise significantly from this September. University College Dublin, Trinity College Dublin and Dublin City University – who all provide on-campus accommodation – have confirmed plans for rent increases for the upcoming academic year …” (more)

[Aine McMahon, Irish Times, 1 June]

“Last week I wrote a guest blog post for the National College of Ireland Blog about a day in the life of a Lecturer, which was published yesterday. I chose the last Wednesday of Semester II to log my activities for the day – this was my longest and busiest day of the week …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 6 May]

“Coming up to the Easter weekend I, along with everyone else, am looking forward to a long weekend with both Good Friday and Easter Monday giving a nice break at this time of year …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 1 April]

“Third level students are being advised to look at hostels for accommodation in Dublin City because of the accommodation shortage. Trinity College has pointed students at the hostels as it has nothing left to offer them on campus …” (more)

[Elaine McCahill, Independent, 26 July]

“Around 100 members of staff are to undertake industrial action at the National College of Ireland due to what SIPTU describes as a ‘unilateral breach by the college management of an agreement reached with union members two years ago’ …” (more)

[TheJounal.ie, 29 October]

“Today I attended a short Conference at NCI on teaching and learning in the FE sector in Ireland. It is not a sector that I am very familiar with, so I was keen to learn more about the sector and meet some of the teachers and practitioners that are the educators in this space …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 25 January]

“Today the Higher Education Authority has published Completing the Landscape Process for Irish Higher Education. Proof that things move slowly in this field is that after almost a full year since the HEA first started this process that the new document does ‘not represent, at this point, the considered conclusions of the HEA’. There’s a lot more to come …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 16 January]

“There is no doubt that in Ireland’s desperate economic situation that Education budgets are under threat. The Government is asking how to get more for less. The Higher Education Authority (HEA) last year asked for submissions from all third level colleges to express their views as to how the third-level system should be reformed …” (more)

[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 3 January]

“Photos from this morning’s demonstration outside the Department of Education organised by USI, TCDSU, DITSU and NCISU.” (photos)

[Facebook, 22 November]