The third session of Thursday’s CAVE Seminar (pdf) on the National Strategy for Higher Education (the Hunt Report) divided into two workshops, one on Research (facilitator: Dr Aiden Seery (TCD); rapporteur: Dr Joan Lalor (TCD)), the other on Teaching and Learning (facilitator: Dr Ciara O’Farrell (TCD); rapporteur: yours truly). The workshops discussed many of the themes of the first two panels, and the rapporteurs’ reports to the final plenary session allowed those discussions to engage with one another. Proceeding from their separate starting points, there was a great deal of convergence in the analysis and conclusions of the two workshops, not least their agreement as to the flaws in the Hunt Report.

Both workshops bemoaned that modern policy is driving a wedge between research on the one hand, and teaching and learning on the other, as reflected in the titles and focus of the two workshops! Both workshops felt that it is crucial for HE to maintain and insist upon parity of esteem of between teaching and learning, on the one hand, with research on the other. However, both workshops felt that government policies and institutional strategies are increasingly favouring a particular kind of research. State funding is mostly for research, since it is easy to ascertain certain research inputs (money) and to measure certain research outputs (for example, PhD numbers, or peer-reviewed publications in the “right” journals in the “right” databases).…

Read More »

The second panel of Thursday’s CAVE Seminar (pdf) on the National Strategy for Higher Education (the Hunt Report) concerned The Student Experience. It was chaired by Dr Patrick Geoghegan (TCD), and featured Martin McAndrew (Vice President, TCD GSU), Dr Mary-Liz Trant (HEA), Dr Austin Hanley (Athlone IT), and Dr Aiden Kenny (TUI). There were several connections between the first panel and this one. Two stood out. In this morning’s panel, Tony welcomed the emphasis in Hunt on generic skills as an important aspect teaching and learning, and he argued that there is no inherent conflict between academic values and employability skills. By way of contrast, in this panel, Austin recalled the negative impact of fees on student participation, and commented that “you have to have the opportunity to go to College to have a student experience”. Both of these themes recurred throughout this second panel.

Aiden explicitly argued that quality and cuts are antithetical, and although academic staff have so far managed to maintain academic quality and standards, a crisis point is nearing: the mounting workload is not sustainable, and (recalling a point made by Mike and Erika in the first panel) and the voice of academic expertise seems excluded from the development of policy in this area.…

Read More »

I spent this morning at a fascinating Seminar (pdf) on the National Strategy for Higher Education (the Hunt Report, which I blogged here), organised by my TCD colleagues Dr Andrew Loxley, Dr Aiden Seery, and Dr John Walsh, (CAVE, School of Education, TCD). This is the first of four three blogposts about the event. The first panel concerned Who pays for College? Expansion and Sustainability in Higher Education. It was chaired by Prof Maria Slowey (DCU), and featured Mike Jennings (IFUT), Tony Donohoe (IBEC), Ryan Bartlett (President, TCD SU; and student in School of Education, TCD), and Dr Erika Doyle (TRSA).

In her introduction, Maria pointed out that the question of “who pays?” is much broader than fees, hence questions of expansion and sustainability in the subtitle.

Mike began his very witty presentation by observing that the Hunt Report is underwhelming and full of internal contradictions. Erika similarly observed that the Report is long on aspiration, but short on detail. And both of them felt that it betrays its lack of engagement with serving academics; and they and Ryan all observed that, where there are bars to access to higher education (HE), one family member may not be able to go to College to allow another to do so.…

Read More »