At a time when the calls for more ICT and science training in secondary schools grow louder by the day, some are now asking if it might be time to reflect on the nature of education and of true reform. One such voice made itself heard in the Irish Times during the week. Steven Lydon, […]
Migrant families living in Ireland will no longer have to pay the 10,000- to 12,000-euro fee that migrant students in Ireland have previously been asked to pay for their third-level education. The concession marks a significant point of progress in the campaign for equal access to education. In essence, the change means that migrant students […]
The CAO figures for first preference submissions have been released. These are typically a good indicator of the points requirements for courses when CAO offers are issued in late August. Growing in popularity Among the subject areas showing a growth in interest were business/commerce (up by 6.5 per cent), engineering/technology (up by 3.5 per cent), […]
Cool heads, if only they prevailed a bit more often. It seems that wherever there are people, there will inevitably be disputes – whether over money, territory, possessions or rights. Disputes at the highest levels can have massive costs. For instance, in 2012 Samsung was hit with a head-spinning 1.5 billion dollar lawsuit in a […]
It seems that up until now, not enough serious consideration has been paid to the the transition that post-primary students face as they head into higher education. Which seems a bit strange for a number of reasons. For one thing, the leap from primary to secondary school is a huge leap that marks a vital […]
It looks as though the long-mooted shake-up of the Leaving Cert points system may happen after all. According to Minister of Education Ruairi Quinn, the plan is to gradually phase-in changes from September 2014 so that the new system is in place for students sitting the Leaving Cert in 2017. These plans recently overcame […]
About now, students up and down the country will be enjoying a well-earned break having negotiated the travails of the Leaving Certificate. Some will be anticipating college life and the fresh set of challenges that await them. And indeed they are fresh challenges: moving from home, meeting new people and settling in to a new […]
Though not the be-all-and-end-all measure of academic performance, the world university rankings from the Times Higher Education are taken very seriously by colleges, organisations and students around the world. Making an appearance on the list can greatly enhance a college’s international reputation and prospects. Thankfully, the latest list is not without Irish representation. The latest […]
Last Thursday (13 June) was the final day of Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology’s Graduate Exhibition. The art on display was of such extraordinary quality that several of the works captured the attention of Irish Times reviewer Aidan Dunne, who described the students’ work in today’s paper as ‘Inventive, ambitious, engaged and […]
Few sectors are as lively as the IT sector is at this moment in time. Because technology is changing the way that business is conducted, and because it is hurtling forward at such a relentless pace, the demand for IT graduates is not only strong, it is urgent. The growth of the technology sector […]
According to the Higher Education Authority’s Chief Executive Tom Boland, this year’s crop of Leaving Certificate students may be the last to avail of the approximate equality between the number of higher education places that are available to them and the demand to fill those places. Speaking to the Irish Times, Mr Boland commented: […]
The CAO recently announced (in its Strategic Plan 2013-2017) aims to extend its services to cover applications to all courses in further and higher education, including all post-secondary part-time programmes. The aim of the expansion is to make it easier for to students to navigate the options that are available to them. It seems an […]
So you’ve been caught looking at Twitter feeds, Facebook updates and Pinterest trends on your smartphone in class. This means trouble, right? Actually, no, it doesn’t. Quite the opposite in fact – you were simply immersed in the topic, because you’re a student on a Digital Marketing/Media course. It may sound a bit strange, […]
Providing care and opportunity to the most vulnerable members of our society is a huge undertaking for those responsible. Social care workers must be determined, compassionate, empathetic, and well prepared in order to meet the demands ahead. In times of economic difficulty, problems of social marginalisation and disadvantage inevitably become more widespread. Policymakers are often placed […]
According to the EU Skills Panorama, when it comes to skills imbalance, Ireland ranks joint third out of 26 countries surveyed. Naturally, this is a major cause for concern for many employers. IT jobs accounted for one-fifth of all jobs advertised last year. Programmers and software engineers are in as much demand now as those […]
It’s probably true that at this particular moment in time, we are a little bit guilty of over-emphasizing the positives when it comes to new job announcements. However, it is clear that there are enough sustained signs of growth for at least a cautious sense of optimism as certain trends begin to emerge. With all […]
Reform of the Leaving Cert was one of the key recommendations of a new report entitled ‘A 20/20 Vision for Education’. The report, which was drawn up by the Post-Primary Education Forum – a group that comprises teachers, parents and students – claims to place the concerns and needs of the student at the […]
Getting to college has always been a commendable achievement in an academic sense, but the funding challenges faced by students now makes it a financial one too. The value of further and third-level education to students has never been higher. Jobs are becoming more complex and because there is still a shortage for them, competition […]
The growth of Ireland’s knowledge economy looks set to continue according to the Higher Education Authority’s (HEA) analysis of the latest CAO preferences, as reported by the Irish Times. The major subject areas in terms of first preference applications were technology (20 per cent of all first preference applications), science (7.5 per cent), computing (6.6 […]
According to figures released earlier this week by Eurostat, the EU’s statistical office, Ireland has the highest proportion of young people who have attained a third-level education. The EU target for third-level (or equivalent) education attainment in those aged between 30 and 34 currently stands at 40 per cent. Though the European average for 2012 […]
