Ninth Level Ireland

“The likely creation of significant additional higher education places for students denied college entry due to errors in Leaving Cert calculations will make an already bad lecturer:student ratio even worse and undermine the credibility of higher education delivery, the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has warned …” (more)

[IFUT, 1 September]

“The fate of a major College strategy to reduce its staff–student ratio – designed to arrest a series of falls in world university rankings – could be in doubt following Trinity’s decision to freeze all recruitment amid the coronavirus pandemic …” (more)

[Sárán Fogarty, University Times, 21 April]

“Trinity College Dublin is reducing its staff-student ratio and also aims to become Ireland’s largest research institution, under a new five-year strategic plan. The university will increase student numbers from 18,500 to 21,500 by 2025, partly to cater for the surge in school-leavers coming down the tracks …” (more)

[Katherine Donnelly, Independent, 11 March]

“Trinity could spend €29 million to recruit 263 new academic staff members over the next five years, The University Times has learned, as part of an ambitious plan to bring its staff–student ratio in line with other major European universities and arrest a series of rankings slides …” (more)

[Emer Moreau, University Times, 29 January]

“Provost Patrick Prendergast has warned that Trinity may need to reduce the number of students it admits in the next five years, arguing that reducing the staff–student ratio is crucial if the College is to arrest slides in university rankings. Speaking today on the Seán O’Rourke show on RTÉ Radio 1, Prendergast said …” (more)

[Donal MacNamee, University News, 2 October]

“Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of reducing the academic staff to student ratio at third level; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 11 April]

“Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills if he has satisfied himself with current student staff ratios in universities; and if he has current figures for these ratios and figures for the variances across subject areas …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 14 December]

“Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the cost of reducing the academic staff to student ratio at third level to 1:15 in each of the years 2017 to 2021, taking forecasted increases in student numbers into account; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 8 June]

“Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of reducing the staff student ratio in third level institutions by one student, two students, three students, four students, five students; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” (more)

[Dáil written answers, 25 May]

“Jonathan O’Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein): To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the level of funding that would be required to reduce the current teacher:student ratio of 1:23, in the Irish university sector to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 1:14 …” (more)

[Dáil Written answers, 17 February]

“Deputy Charlie McConalogue asked the Minister for Education and Skills the ratio of students to teaching staff in each year for the past five years at third level; and if he will make a statement on the matter …” [more]

[Dáil Éireann Written Answers, 17 July]

“One of the key performance indicators that influence university rankings and attract comment is the student-staff ratio. In almost every assessment of higher education there is an assumption that a smaller number of students supported by a larger number of academic faculty is better for quality …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 17 June]

“Staff-student ratios in higher education in Ireland are now ‘considerably out of line’ with international norms ‘and the national implication is incredibly serious’, the recently-appointed president of UCD has said. In one of his first public statements since taking up the post, Prof Andrew Deeks …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 12 June]

“A major review of how Ireland’s colleges and universities are funded has been launched due to concerns over whether the already stretched system can cope with an expected surge in future demand …” (more)

[Fiachra Ó Cionnaith, Irish Examiner, 12 June]

“You’d hardly blame Ruairí Quinn for kicking to touch on college fees after the flak he has taken, since taking office, over increasing the student registration charge. The setting up of a working group is a classic political stalling method, and Mr Quinn has little room for manoeuvre as the charge hits €3,000 next year in breach of a pre-election promise to keep it unchanged …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 12 June]

“Look to Ireland, not Australia, to see the damage caused by unfettered recruitment, says Bahram Bekhradnia …” (more)

[Times Higher Education, 8 May]

“Figures released in the latest Higher Education Authority (HEA) report has highlighted a national trend that the ratio of students to staff in Irish universities is higher than those in the United Kingdom, and is significantly affecting Irish university rankings on a global basis …” (more)

[Killian Woods, University Observer, 18 February]

“The ratio of students to staff has sharply increased at universities, new figures show, in a trend that threatens to further damage Ireland’s standing in global rankings for higher education. In a five-year period, the ratio has gone up from 23:1 to 27:1, a level that ‘puts us on a par with what would have been a bad polytechnic in the UK’ …” (more)

[Joe Humphreys, Irish Times, 15 February]

“We know that the global university rankings compiled by the magazine Times Higher Education use student-staff ratios as one the key criteria for the league tables. Interestingly, the only Irish institution that makes it into the top 100 on that basis is Dublin Institute of Technology. And we also know, in the context of the continuing budget cuts in Ireland and the anticipated further reductions in public expenditure later this year that the position of Irish universities in this regard will erode further; indeed, quite apart from the budget cuts there is now the public sector recruitment embargo that has, with some modifications, also been applied to higher education. In fact, even in much better times the student-staff ratio in Ireland has been bad by international standards …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 20 April]