Tag: education
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33 (cynical) thoughts on academia after 33 years
So August 2024 marks 33 years as a full-time academic. That’s a stretch. I have previously noted some thoughts on the academy. However, in a slightly more cynical frame of mind, here are some more
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Closing Colleges and Schools in the face of Covid-19
This is a longer version of an op-ed published in the Irish Times 10-3-20
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10 things more important than essay mills
The Irish government, via Minister Bruton, is to “clamp down” on essay mills. That trying, in effect, to outlaw d’internet is doomed to failure is indicative of how little sensible focus is exerted on real challenges facing the higher education sector. Here are ten things that are more deserving than essay mills of ministerial press…
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Minister Bruton’s Eduprenairship
Last week the government launched a plan. An education plan. Like all plans, it should be taken with enough salt to preserve a whale, but plans are needed if only to know what we should be doing. But plans should be coherent. A close examination of the plan suggests some worrying trends. We are creating an…
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Four (or more…) problems with student loans
There has been a disturbance in the force? Do you feel it? The opening words of the trailer for the much awaited new Star wars movie might as well describe how the ground seems to be shifting on higher education funding. We seem to be moving towards a student loan model, although there is zero…
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Irish Universities and enlightenment ideals
The Fellows of TCD have organised a symposium on the topic of how aligned or otherwise universities are to enlightenment ideals. Also of relevance is how recent and proposed changes in governance and the regulatory environment may hamper or aid this alignment. The symposium is free but registration is required. It takes place this coming…
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Five economics lessons for the Leaving Certificate
With the leaving cert results out and students awaiting CAO offers, we might wish to consider again some of the problems of the second level system, and in particular how basic economic principles can aid us towards a solution. Too much discussion on reform revolves into micro discussion of whether we should have compulsory Irish…
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Disruptive Innovation and Irish Universities post-Leporte
History and business are rarely taught or even studied together. That’s a pity. Economic history, as subject, has disappeared down the memory hole. What is more worrying perhaps is that the methods of historical analysis, careful source text reinterpretations, critical data analysis and a cool analysis, are not often applied to business. Enter Jill Lepore,…