“Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if she will raise the threshold for postgraduate SUSI grants to allow for the economic uncertainty due to Covid-19 …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 21 July]
“Last month, over 1,100 University College Dublin (UCD) students signed a petition calling for a partial refund of their fees for the 2019/2020 academic term. Two-thirds of the petitioners are postgraduate students, and just over half are doing a one-year masters degree. UCD currently refuses to grant refunds to any students …” (more)
[Meadhbh Park and Blathnaid Corless, College Tribune, 9 June]
“NUI Galway’s Postgraduate Workers Alliance launched a petition this week calling for ‘a fair working environment and Covid-19 response’ for PhD and post-doctoral researchers at the university …” (more)
[Kernan Andrews, Galway Advertiser, 21 May]
“Following major backlash from postgraduate students, Trinity’s Finance Committee has confirmed the restoration of pay rates for casual staff to their previous levels. Last month, The University Times reported that Trinity’s casual workers – including many TAs and postgraduate students – were facing pay cuts of almost 20% for their teaching duties …” (more)
[Alex Connolly, University Times, 3 March]
“Trinity has rowed back on its decision to cut the hourly teaching pay of students and staff employed on a casual basis, hours after postgraduates protested against the reduction outside a meeting of the College’s Finance Committee. The decision was made at today’s meeting of the committee, as nearly 80 postgraduate students protested against the pay cuts outside House One …” (more)
[Donal MacNamee and Cormac Watson, University Times, 4 February]
“SIPTU and the Union of Students in Ireland (USI) have launched a Charter of Rights and Conditions for Postgraduates which calls for a living wage, better access to supports and training as well as other improvements for those who carry out teaching and other work in third level institutions across the country …” (more)
[SIPTU, 30 October]
“Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the position with regard to the restoration of post-graduate grants; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 22 January]
“More than two in five postgraduate research students have seriously considered dropping out of their degree, mainly because of financial or personal issues, a major national survey reveals. The study of nearly 3,000 masters, PhD, or other students on postgrad research programmes found that more than 61% are fully or partly funded by a scholarship, but the figure drops to 57% if non-Irish students are excluded …” (more)
[Niall Murray, Irish Examiner, 20 November]
“Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated full year cost of continuing the restoration of postgraduate grants with the restoration of the partial band rate; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)
[Dáil written answers, 25 October]
“Maynooth University has announced a partnership with a major Chinese university which will see 1,200 Chinese science and engineering students graduate with its qualifications over the coming years. The alliance, designed to grow Maynooth’s number of postgraduate students by 60% over the next five years, will see it establish a joint international college of engineering with Fuzhou University in Fujian province …” (more)
[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 17 October]
“… We offer a more fine-grained analysis, focusing on one dimension of higher education and research with many ramifications, that is, the role of non-UK postgraduate research students in UK research. These students substantially enhance UK research capacity and teaching excellence and UK higher education institutions are highly dependent on them …” (more)
[Ludovic Highman and Simon Marginson, University World News, 31 August]
“We cannot understand the risks posed by Brexit to the UK higher education (HE) system simply by taking a bird’s eye view of the system at the macro-level, treating the ‘university’ as a one and indivisible unit and the ‘student’ as a one-size-fits-all category. This misses the diversity of higher education institutions (HEIs), the multitude of disciplines they harbour that cater for all dimensions of human activity and the different types of students they enrol …” (more)
[Ludovic Highman and Simon Marginson, CGHE, 17 July]
“The average PhD student experiences severe stress, moderate anxiety and mild levels of depression, according to the results of a Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) postgraduate mental health survey. The survey was presented by GSU Vice-President Madhav Bhargav at a meeting of the Student Life Committee this week …” (more)
[Peter Kelly, Trinity News, 31 May]
“Frozen fees for current postgraduate and non-EU students would wipe €2.6 million from College’s projected earnings, Trinity’s Chief Financial Officer Ian Mathews has warned. Documents, circulated ahead of a high-stakes meeting of the College Board tomorrow and seen by The University Times, reveal Trinity’s concerns about the financial impact of fee certainty …” (more)
[Dominic McGrath and Eleanor O’Mahony, University Times, 28 March]
“The Union of Students in Ireland (USI) held its inaugural postgraduate conference yesterday, focusing on solving current issues plaguing students who decide to undertake a master’s degree or PhD …” (more)
[Kathleen McNamee, University Times, 23 February]
“Sir, – The findings of the latest Eurostudent survey (News, January 22nd) indicate that over a third of college students in Ireland are experiencing severe financial difficulties. This is the highest percentage of all the European states …” (more)
[Edel Foley, Irish Times, 27 January]
“Postgraduate students were given a glimpse behind the curtain this afternoon, as three of Trinity’s senior officers tried to persuade them that fee increases were part of the hard reality of College’s financial situation …” (more)
[Dominic McGrath, University Times, 23 January]
“The Graduate Students’ Union (GSU) is planning a strike to protest an increase in fees by 5% for postgraduates this coming year. For most of you, that means that you’ll be able to miss a tutorial without the usual sense of guilt. But the GSU hasn’t just jumped out onto the stage and decided that this should be the action; this decision came about after some lengthy debate …” (more)
[Xander Cosgrave, Trinity News, 13 December]
“Graduate Officer Niall Torris has come out strongly against rising postgraduate fees calling it a ‘very cynical move’ by UCD. Speaking to the Tribune Mr Torris said …” (more)
[College Tribune, 2 November]
