“Being on Twitter has been a huge learning experience for me. There are so many brilliant teachers and scientists on the platform that I would never have come across if I had adopted the attitude that it’s all just people taking photos of their dinner. Oh for the good old days, you might say, before that totalitarians escape! …” (more)
[Tales from Academia, 10 June]
“UCC are investigating after some online posts were made targeting a number of female students. A probe has been launched after over 20 women had their pictures posted on an Instagram account which appeared to run a competition where viewers could rate them based on their looks …” (more)
[Gavin O’Callaghan, CorkBeo, 3 April]
“Students of University College Cork (UCC) are calling for a fair approach to upcoming final examinations which are due to be sat online. UCC students are continuing to study from home as measures taken by the Government led to the further closure of universities across the country …” (more)
[Breda Graham, EchoLive, 1 April]
Change.org is emerging as a significant forum of protest for those dissatisfied with the state of Irish higher education. Here are petitions for the last month:
‘No Detriment’ Policy for Technological University Dublin (31 March)
“No detriment” Policy for UCD (31 March)
“No Detriment” policy for the Waterford Institute of Technology (31 March)
“No Detriment” Policy for Trinity College Dublin (31 March)
Show Compassion: Refund UL Students no longer using on-campus accommodation 2019/20 Sem. 2 (30 March)
Protect Academic Freedom at University College Dublin! (30 March)
“No Detriment” Policy for Cork Institute of Technology (30 March)
“No Detriment” policy for Maynooth University (30 March)
‘No Detriment’ Policy for Dublin City University (30 March)
“No Detriment” Policy for University College Cork (30 March)
Establish a “No Detriment” policy in UL (30 March)
Ulster University: Introduce a ‘safety net’ mitigation system for summer assessments (27 March)
Queen’s University: Introduce a ‘safety net’ mitigation system for summer assessments (26 March)
To ensure students are given Rent relief given the Covid-19 situation! (25 March)
Queen’s University: Give Students the Option to Keep Current Grade as Final Mark (25 March)
10% added to Degree Classification for Final Year Students in COVID-19 Pandemic (24 March)
Urging Ulster University to reconsider the tuition fees for the year of 2019/2020 (23 March)
Maynooth University Student Accommodation Refund (23 March)
No online exams for QUB Students (19 March)
Suspend Student Accommodation rent for those who have had to return home due to COVID-19 (19 March)
Extend the History Dissertation Deadline at QUB (16 March)
Airlift Indian Students from Ireland (16 March)
Kylemore Reinstate Staff during Coronavirus #BoycottKylemore #BoycottKSG (13 March)
Queens University Belfast- Shut Down Lectures (12 March)
Close NUIG, Keep Sult Open (9 March)
Petition for Online Teaching in QUB under COVID-19 Threat (7 March)
Stop Unionists interference in QUB students voice. Support Grian Ni Dhaimhin as President (3 March)
Stop the 12% rent increase in UCD (2 March)
End the Sectarianism towards Protestants and Unionist Students at QUB! (1 March)
DCU Students’ Union urge the University to reverse its decision to increase rents by 4% (1 March)
“A leading virologist has pulled back from speaking to the media about the spread of coronavirus after she was targeted by online trolls. Dr Lindsay Broadbent posted on Twitter over the weekend that she is stepping back from commenting publicly on the health crisis in order to preserve her own mental health …” (more)
[Lisa Smyth, Belfast Telegraph, 16 March]
“Dublin City University (DCU) has denied any cases of coronavirus on its campus after rumours circulated on social media that a student had contracted the disease. The rumours started after an image of an ambulance, which appeared to be on DCU’s campus, was posted on Instagram and then shared on Twitter …” (more)
[Emer Moreau, University Times, 3 March]
“Being able to find, assess and place new research within a field of knowledge, is integral to any research project. For social scientists this process is increasingly likely to take place on Google Scholar, closely followed by traditional scholarly databases. In this post, Alberto Martín-Martín, Enrique Orduna-Malea, Mike Thelwall, Emilio Delgado-López-Cózar, analyse the relative coverage of the three main research databases, Google Scholar, Web of Science and Scopus, finding significant divergences in the social sciences and humanities and suggest that researchers face a trade-off when using different databases: between more comprehensive, but disorderly systems and orderly, but limited systems …” (more)
[LSE Impact Blog, 3 December]
“A review of a law students’ WhatsApp group called ‘Tits and Filth’ has uncovered no evidence of disparaging references to female trainee solicitors, the Law Society has said. The body, which trains and represents solicitors, launched an investigation into the group after receiving complaints from several members …” (more)
[Conor Gallagher, Irish Times, 14 October]
“The Law Society of Ireland has said there were no references to female trainees in a messaging group that is being investigated by the solicitors’ training body. It comes after a number of messaging apps were blocked as it was reported that inappropriate content was posted onto a WhatsApp group entitled ‘tits and filth’ …” (more)
[Cate McCurry, Belfast Telegraph, 14 October]
“A trainee solicitor has said she feels disgusted that female students are being objectified by their male counterparts. The Law Society has launched an investigation after ‘highly offensive’ messages were found to be circulating in a Whatsapp group among some first-year law trainees at Dublin’s Blackhall Place …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 12 October]
“News in today’s Guardian that ‘US essay mill firm targets new students through WhatsApp’ does not really surprise me – I’m sure essay mills have many clever ways to attract the attention of students who choose not to write their own essays. What does surprise me is the price, it is £7 per page (just over €8) …” (more)
[Careful With That Axe, Eugene, 8 April]
“Maynooth University’s Department of Law has apologised to a student following a reply they received on Twitter. The response a student was given when they asked about the exam timetable has received criticism online …” (more)
[Irish Examiner, 31 March]
“A university is switching off all its social media channels for a few days as an example to encourage its students to try their own ‘digital detox’. De Montfort University, in Leicester, wants to highlight how ‘unrestrained social media use’ can be harmful to the mental health of young people …” (more)
[Sean Coughlan, BBC News, 15 January]
“Students at Dublin City University have begun a campaign on social media to prevent the deportation of an asylum seeker student at the college. According to the college’s students’ union, Shepherd Machaya has been issued with a deportation order which requires him to leave the state by next Sunday …” (more)
[Emma O Kelly, RTÉ News, 18 October]
“Academics have been sharing the parts of their job which make them feel warm and fuzzy inside, sparked by a post from historian Dr William Pooley. He told of his ‘joy’ about writing a reference for one of his brightest students …” (more)
[Nicola Irwin, Independent, 21 September]
“Choose your friends, clothes and politics wisely. They’ll come back to haunt you. The time when media fatheads humblebrag about doing badly in their Leaving Certificate has passed. We are now in the later stages of an equally infuriating season. For the last week or so, the same jerks have been offering unasked-for advice to those heading off to college …” (more)
[Donald Clarke, Irish Times, 21 September]
“St Vincent de Paul cancels cheque it gave student to secure college place after message posted on Instagram. An ‘act of bravado’ by a college student has seen a cheque he received from St Vincent de Paul to secure his college place being cancelled. The young man had told a specially convened conference of a St Vincent de Paul education committee in Kerry that he would lose his place in college if he did not get emergency funding …” (more)
[Anne Lucey, Irish Times, 10 September]
“University College Cork has successfully launched a social media campaign aimed at presenting complex ideas and research in a straightforward way to a general audience. It featured attention-grabbing portraits of researchers taken by Cork-based photographer Clare Keogh, accompanied by accessible explanations of their work …” (more)
[Kevin O’Sullivan, Irish Times, 30 August]
“When the University Times posted an advertisement for the private luxury student accommodation bloc #LIVStudent on its Instagram account this week, many students were shocked. Such was the strength of the criticism to this post, the University Times felt that it was necessary to turn off comments underneath. And that isn’t the only instance of the University Times advertising luxury student accommodation …” (more)
[Muireann McGlynn, Trinity News, 26 August]
“On Monday, a strange tweet, remembering the awarding of an honorary degree to the widely criticised Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi, was posted from Trinity’s Twitter account. Predictably, the ensuing confusion and criticism forced Trinity to swiftly delete the tweet. The tweet, which lauded her as ‘one of the most renowned women democrats in the world’, was part of the College’s #OnThisDay series on social media. Yet it only served to highlight something that students and staff may have otherwise wanted to forget …” (more)
[University Times, 24 June]
