Category: Universities

Snarking the Hunt – II – The Student Experience

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Irish Society, Universities

Purple Globe, via School of Education TCD websiteThe 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.…

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Snarking the Hunt – I – Who pays for College?

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| Conferences, Lectures, Papers and Workshops, Irish Society, Universities

Purple Globe, via School of Education TCD websiteI 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.…

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Not by higher education alone?

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| Central Applications Office, General, Universities

'Not by Bread Alone' book cover, via CoE websiteThe Bible tells Christians that ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God’ (Matthew 4:4). The aphorism is echoed in the title and plot of Vladimir Dudintsev’s anti-Stalist novel Not by Bread Alone. Now it is the main title of a recent book about the importance of higher education in developing modern societies built upon the fundamental values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law: Sjur Bergan Not by bread alone (Council of Europe higher education series No 17; 2011). Public debate often assumes that the only purpose of higher education is to prepare gradutes for employment, and this view feeds back into third-level entry requirements and second-level curricula. Hence, we see an increasing focus on “training” (rather than educating) graduates in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (with attendant risks to the arts, humanities, and social sciences). This third-level policy brings a concommitant focus at second-level on bonus CAO points for maths generating calls for bonus points for science and a compulsory leaving certificate science course (perhaps to the detriment of the study of foreign languages; and quite how this stands with the Minster for Education’s stated aim of moving away from the CAO points culture is unclear).…

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The dubious second Employment Control Framework is revised

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| Litigation, Universities

HEA logo, via the HEA websiteIn March, I blogged about the dubious legality of the second Employment Control Framework, which the outgoing government had introduced to control employment in the third level sector. It was misguided and controversial (eg, Liam Delaney here, and here | Dermot Frost | Bernie Goldbach | Aidan Kane | Stephen Kinsella | Rob Kitchen | James McInerney | Donncha O’Connell | Stefano Sanvito | Ferdinand von Prondzynski, passim, but esp here, here, and here). After some discord and delay, that framework has now, it seems, been greatly revised to resolve many of the contentious issues (see Revised ECF 2011-2014 June 2011 (pdf)).

Tom Boland, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Authority, said that the revised Framework “provides reasonable flexibility to the higher education institutions to manage their staffing requirements”; and the public response has been largely positive. For example, in today’s Irish Independent Katherine Donnelly writes that Ministers softened their approach after an outcry from colleges about ‘Soviet-style’ controls, which greeted the original proposals published earlier this year. Again, in today’s Irish Times, Sean Flynn points out that the revised framework removes the onus on colleges to notify the Higher Education Authority of appointments which are funded from external sources, and gives colleges additional flexibility on promotional posts.…

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Abramova and Croskery – updates

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| Academic judgment, Litigation, Universities

Burnett J’s judgment in Abramova v Oxford Institute of Legal Practice [2011] EWHC 613 (QB) (18 March 2011) – about which I blogged last week – is now available on BAILII. The [update: now defunct] Oxford Institute for Legal Practice successfully defended this case. On the other side of the line is Mike Austen who received £30,000 from the University of Wolverhampton in an out-of-court settlement in 2002. More and more students are now taking such cases. The Scotsman on the weekend reported recent Scottish examples of the phenomenon. Extract, (with added links):

Students sue universities for higher grades

By Fiona MacLeod, Education Correspondent

GROWING numbers of students in Scotland are taking legal action against their universities for failing to provide adequate support for degree courses. Six students across the country have taken out cases after receiving lower grades than they expected, according to the legal firm Ross Harper.

A spokesman for the firm said it was dealing with four cases of former students seeking legal action against their university, and added that a further two had settled through the institution’s own grievance procedure. The spokesman said that students now see themselves more as consumers of services and were more likely to complain when they believed university courses were sub-standard.

…

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C&AG probes ‘unlawful payments’ at universities – National News, Frontpage – Independent.ie

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| General, Restitution, Universities

THE state spending watchdog has begun an investigation into the “unlawful” payment of millions of euro in allowances to senior university staff, the Irish Independent has learned.

The Comptroller and Auditor General’s (C&AG) office has agreed to a request from the Higher Education Authority (HEA) to assess exactly how much was spent on unauthorised payments between 1999 and 2009.

It is understood the investigation will be completed by May.

There has been an ongoing dispute between the HEA — the agency responsible for higher education — and the universities over how much was paid to staff at colleges including UCD, Trinity College, UCC, NUI Galway and the University of Limerick.

The HEA has already told a Public Accounts Committee that it will withhold millions in funding from the universities in a bid to get the money back.

The allowances, including incentives and performance-related bonuses, were originally discovered by the C&AG in 2009

via independent.ie

This issue is nowhere near as straightforward as the report suggests. Have a look at here.

…

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Coalition to amend restrictions on third-level recruitment (Irish Times report with added links and commentary) #ecf11

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| General, Universities

Coalition to amend restrictions on third-level recruitment

SEÁN FLYNN, Education Editor

CONTROVERSIAL NEW rules on recruitment in the higher education sector are to be amended by the Government within weeks.

Officials at the Department of Education and the Department of Enterprise are working on changes to the rules which have brought angry protests from academics.

The revised Employment Control Framework (ECF) introduced by the last government in its final days restricts employment in the sector, even to research posts funded from non-exchequer sources.

The rules have been labelled as “Stalinist” and damaging to Ireland’s research interests by senior academics.

Last week, Martin Shanagher, assistant secretary at the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, admitted the framework would penalise research activity. In a confidential memo, he said the rules were introduced before their full implications were considered.

Yesterday, Minister for Enterprise Richard Bruton said the Government could not have a system that might restrict research.

In this context his department, along with others, were looking at decisions made by the last administration.

Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn said the Government would welcome constructive suggestions from third level to overcome this problem. But he also said any potential pension liability for the exchequer would also have to be addressed.

…

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Abramova: judicial deference and the litigious student

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| Academic judgment, Litigation, Universities

After Andrew Croskery and Tony Chinedu Wogu comes Maria Abramova (Above the Law | BBC | Cherwell | Legal Week | Mirror | Oxford Mail | Oxford Times | The Lawyer | PA). In Abramova v Oxford Institute of Legal Practice [2011] EWHC 613 (QB) (18 March 2011) (pdf), the plaintiff sued the [update: now defunct] Oxford Institute of Legal Practice (OxILP) for £100,000 for negligence and breach of contract, but Burnett J dismissed her claim. Her case is the latest example of the increasingly frequent phenomenon of the litigious student, and it raises some very important legal issues.

An important threshold question in such cases is whether the matter can be litigated at all. There is judicial deference to matters of academic freedom, so the courts are very slow to interfere in matters of purely academic judgment, and generally regard such matters as unsuitable for adjudication in the courts (Harelkin v University of Regina 1979 CanLII 18 (SCC), [1979] 2 SCR 561 (30 March 1979); Clark v University of Lincolnshire & Humberside [2000] 1 WLR 1988, [2000] EWCA Civ 129 (14 April 2000); George van Mellaert v Oxford University [2006] EWHC 1565 (QB) (29 June 2006) (pdf) (blogged here); Re Croskery [2010] NIQB 129 (8 December 2010) (blogged here)).…

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