Ninth Level Ireland

“The Minister for Higher Education, Mary Mitchell O’Connor, TD, today 13th June, 2018 gave a closing address to the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) conference on future funding of Higher Education in Ireland. This conference presented a range of expert speakers on higher education including former Minister for Education and IIEA chairperson Ruairi Quinn and Peter Cassells author of the expert report titled Investing in National Ambition: A Strategy for Funding Higher Education …” (more)

[Department of Education and Skills, 13 June]

“There is little point in relitigating one of the most extraordinary U-turns in the history of higher education policy in Ireland: that of then-Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn, who, just weeks after signing a giant pledge on behalf of the Labour Party to freeze the student contribution charge at €1,500, announced that the fee would, after all, have to be increased to €2,000 (and this was just the first in a whole series of increases) …” (more)

[University Times, 16 July]

“It has become a regular occurrence. Ever since Peter Cassells, former general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, was appointed by former minister for education Ruairí­ Quinn as chairperson of a group to examine higher education funding in July 2014 there has been a trickle of pitches regarding how students will have to foot the bill for their third-level learning …” (more)

[Una Mullally, Irish Times, 6 June]

“Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week’s programme I bring you the second part of my interview with John Walshe who after spending 4 decades as an education journalist was appointed special adviser to education and skills minister Ruairí Quinn. He wrote about this experience in An Education: How an outsider became an insider – and learned what really goes on in Irish government …” (audio)

[Inside Education on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 25 May]

“Presented and produced by Seán Delaney. On this week’s programme I speak to John Walshe who spent many years as education editor for the Irish Independent and was also special adviser to Ruairí Quinn when he was minister for education and skills. He authored a book about his experience as special adviser titled An Education: How an outsider became an insider …” (more, audio)

[Inside Education on 103.2 Dublin City FM, 18 May]

“A good day for the University of the South East campaign – no mergers and no Jan O’Sullivan and Tom Boland. John Halligan announced on Facebook that … ‘I have also secured a commitment that the need to merge with another IT will be taken out of the criteria for Technological University Status’ …” (more)

[The John Halligan Facebook post is here]
[University of the South East Campaign, 7 May]

“The Labour party has confirmed it cannot rule out increasing fees for third-level students. Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan said she had been briefed on the contents of a report examining the future funding of the sector …” (more)

[Sarah Bardon and Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 16 February]

“The current Junior Cycle row has dragged on for almost four years. It had been talked about for decades but teacher opposition to assessing their own students meant the idea was parked by successive ministers …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 6 January]

“After all the huffing and puffing, the strikes and the votes, long-awaited junior cycle reforms are due to be rolled out in the spring of 2016. But just one in four schools will be in a position to deliver the changes …” (more)

[Carl O’Brien, Irish Times, 28 December]

“The chief executive of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) strongly rejected suggestions that he ‘went looking for the head’ of the former president of Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) …” (more)

[Daniel McConnell, Irish Examiner, 11 December]

“Reform of the student grant scheme has been on the education agenda for decades, but successive governments have shied away from taking action, the Fine Gael-Labour Coalition being no exception …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 18 August]

“College applicants from Dublin are much less likely to get a student grant for higher education than their counterparts in rural Ireland, latest figures show. Data obtained by The Irish Times from Student Universal Support Ireland (Susi) shows that 71.5% of CAO applicants in Longford last year got a means-tested student grant …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 18 August]

“It’s more of everything this year – more students taking the Leaving, more getting better grades, more applying for college, more being offered places and more points needed for more courses …” (more)

[John Walshe, Independent, 17 August]

“In the weeks before he was reshuffled out of cabinet last July, former minister for education Ruairí Quinn said of his much-vaunted junior cycle reforms: ‘I would hope to have pushed the boat out so far that it can’t be recalled’ …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 22 May]

“It was initially hailed as a fine example of public service reform, but in its first year of operation Susi was a disaster. And it’s now clear that it was a disaster waiting to happen because of inadequate planning …” (more)

[Editorial, Independent, 16 April]

“The chaos that engulfed SUSI in its first year of operation is perfectly understandable, and completely inexcusable, after reading the report of the Comptroller and Auditor General, Séamus McCarthy …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 16 April]

“The third-level student contribution charge will be frozen at €3,000 for 2016, Education Minster Jan O’Sullivan has pledged. It effectively kicks the thorny issue to touch until after next year’s general election …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 25 March]

“The Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan, has said that she does not see ‘any circumstances’ where the student contribution charge will be increased beyond €3000 …” (more)

[Edmund Heaphy, University Times, 24 March]

“Beside the fantastic St Patrick’s Day Parade in Dublin on Tuesday, I also enjoyed reading the book by John Walshe over the past long weekend. The book, titled ‘An Education: How an outsider became an insider – and learned what really goes on in Irish government’, is about what Walshe has encountered and learned …” (more)

[Research on Higher Education in Ireland, 20 February]

“The secondary teachers union, the ASTI, is snubbing Education Minister Jan O’Sullivan with a decision not to invite her to its annual Easter conference …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 14 March]