Privacy Princess?
The front page of today’s Times
Last Saturday’s Irish Independent
Author: Eoin
Dr Eoin O'Dell is a Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Trinity College Dublin.
Because they’re worth it, again
Three pieces in today’s Irish Times relate to the state of higher education in Ireland today. Superficially, they all seem positive: the government is giving the sector more money; a consultant sets out a vision for the sector’s future; and the South East calls for a university. In other words, the univerities, their heads, and the South East, are all asking for something on the grounds that they are worth it.
Look more closely, however, and the three stories betray a malaise at the heart of Irish higher education. …
Because they’re worth it
According to reports in the Irish Times and Irish Independent (here and here), a submission from the Irish University Association to the Review Body on Higher Remuneration in the Public Sector argues for a salary increase of up to 55 per cent for the seven heads of Ireland’s universities on the basis that they now face considerably greater complexity and accountability than heretofore in a global, highly competitive market. In fact, another article in today’s Irish Independent provides an intriguing vignette of how competitive the business of attracting students has become. The presidents’ jobs may indeed have got harder (they are certainly doing more, and more controversial things (see Sean Barrett and Tom Collins)). However, the jobs of all us at every level right across the sector have become that much harder. If they’re worth it, so are we.
Update 16 January 2007: Ed Walsh has weighed in on the side of the Presidents; John Walshe reports in the Irish Independent that the IUA has made a similar case to the Review Body on behalf of professors; and Sean Barrett has sounded a loud counterblast in favour of a pay boost for lecturers rather than presidents.…
Pre-nuptial agreements: time for clarity?
The Minister for Justice has announced the membership of Pre-nuptial Study Group, whose terms of reference will be
to study and report on the operation of the law since the introduction of divorce in 1996 with respect to pre-nuptial agreements taking into account constitutional requirements.
Quite frankly, the law in this area is seriously in need of reform. …
All I want for Christmas …
… is a new Law School, a new Law School, a new Law School
Update: 8 January 2007: The formal UCD press release on the announcement has just been published.…
I knew this was a good idea!
Last April, the Berkman Centre for Internet and Society, Harvard Law School hosted a Symposium on Bloggership: How Blogs Are Transforming Legal Scholarship. The event was podcast at the time; and the papers were made available on the Social Science Research Network (SSRN). Now comes the news that the symposium will be published on dead trees by the Washington University Law Review. Paul Caron, of Law Professor Blogs fame, who organised the symposium, has just posted an update of his introductory paper from the symposium on SSRN to appear to appear in vol 84 of the Washington University Law Review early next year. Thanks for all of that, Paul. It provides me with just the kind of justification I need to keep going with this blog. As I say in the title, I knew this was a good idea.…
Broadcast News
Janice Hadlow, Controller of BBC Four, has been named as Oxford University’s News International Visiting Professor of Broadcast Media (2006-20007), in succession to the satirist Armando Iannucci. The visiting chair affords figures in the broadcast media world an opportunity to explore and explain their understandings of the impact of the broadcast media on society. Hadlow’s four lectures after Christmas promise to be thought-provoking, especially her first (on Tuesday 21 January 2007): ‘The Importance of Being Serious – Why Serious Television Still Matters In The Digital Age’. Let’s hope that Oxford or the BBC might think about doing interesting with the lectures, like broadcasting them online?…
Welcome
So, welcome then, Al Jazeera English, the English language service of the (in)famous arabic 24hr rolling news channel Al Jazeera. There will be teething problems. There will be political disagreement about it. It will take time to build the capacity and audience and credibility of CNN and the BBC‘s News 24/World channels. And, quite frankly, there will be some bad or boring television.
Nevetheless, all this aside, today’s launch must be given an unqualified welcome. Diversity in news can only be a good thing. I will therefore be watching online until ntl get around to offering it to their long-suffering Dublin subscribers!…
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