Category: Universities

Academic tenure in the Universities Act, 1997

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| Academic Freedom, Litigation, Tenure, Universities

DVD cover for the movie 'Tenure', via Amazon width=Tenure:

the very word connotes safety, security, and a sense that you have made it in academia. But is the system really all it is cracked up to be, or is it lumbering into the world of 21st century academia like a dinosaur that hasn’t heard it is supposed to be extinct?

In earlier posts on this blog, I have looked at various issues relating to the various legal protections of academic freedom and at the concomitant concept of academic tenure as a matter of principle. In today’s post, I want to look at it as a matter of law.

The starting point is the Universities Act, 1997. Section 25(6) (also here) of the Act provides (with added emphasis):

A university may suspend or dismiss any employee but only in accordance with procedures, and subject to any conditions, specified in a statute made following consultation through normal industrial relations structures operating in the university with recognised staff associations or trade unions, which procedures or conditions may provide for the delegation of powers relating to suspension or dismissal to the chief officer and shall provide for the tenure of officers.

The Statutes of a university constitute its basic law, and section 3 of the 1997 Act (also here) provides that “officer[s]” include “permanent, full-time member[s] of the academic staff of the university”.…

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The Hunting of the Snark

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| Universities

National Strategy for Higher Education logo, via the HEA websiteAs I have observed on this blog in the past, The Hunting of the Snark is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll, which describes “with infinite humour the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature” (Williams and Madan (1974) via wikipedia). We have waited so long for the Hunt Report that it has taken on much of the mythical quality of the “inconceivable” Snark. In February 2009, the Minister for Education and Science established a high level Strategy Group, chaired by Dr Colin Hunt, to develop a National Strategy for Higher Education in Ireland. The Report does not seem to be on the relevant page of the Higher Education Authority (HEA) website, but the Irish Times has today published a draft of the Report on its website (pdf). There have already been many press pieces and blog comments on the Report, so I’m only going to highlight a few of the recommendations that I find particularly interesting.

The Report is a difficult mixture of platitudes (“Ireland’s higher education system has played a major role in the development of Irish society and the economy”) and management jargon (“Ireland’s higher education institutions need to continue to break new ground in research of the highest standards across the spectrum of disciplines and activity”), but that is probably inevitable.…

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Re Croskery [2010] NIQB 129

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| Academic judgment, Andrew Croskery, Grading and Marking, Litigation, Universities

Royal Courts of Justice, Belfast, via FlickrOn this blog last year, I discussed the circumstances in which a university student could challenge a grade in court. Just before Christmas, the Northern Ireland High Court handed down a very important judgment on this issue. In Re Croskery [2010] NIQB 129 (8 December 2010), the applicant, Andrew Croskery, sought leave to apply for judicial review against a refusal by Queens University Belfast to reclassify his degree. In the Queen’s Bench Division of the Northern Ireland High Court (pictured left), Treacy J denied the application. In cases of this kind, where an objection is simply to matters of academic judgment, the courts show great deference to such matters, and are very slow to interfere. The deference is stated in different ways in the cases, and the parties accepted a strong form of it in Croskery. As Treacy J held

on the authority of Re Wislang’s Application [1984] NI 63 (.doc) and Thomas v University of Bradford [1987] AC 795 (.doc) the matters in dispute would presently fall exclusively within the visitorial jurisdiction of the university – subject only to the possibility that any ultimate decision of the Board of Visitors might itself be judicially reviewable.

…

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Leave is refused in QUB graduate’s judicial review of his degree result

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| Andrew Croskery, Grading and Marking, Litigation, Universities

QUB crest, via WikipediaIt’s being reported that Andrew Croskery has failed in his bid to review the 2:2 engineering degree he was awarded by Queen’s University Belfast. According to the BBC:

Judge rules no judicial review over disputed degree

A judge refuses leave for a judicial review of decisions made by Queen’s University over a graduate’s disputed degree classification.

Andrew Croskery, from County Down, was seeking leave for a review of decisions made by the university’s Board of Examiners. But a High Court judge ruled the case should remain exclusively within the jurisdiction of Queen’s appeals body. …

Mr Justice Treacy said that even if this confirmed the existing classification, two further rights of appeal were open to Mr Croskery. He can take his challenge to the University’s Central Students Appeals Committee, and to a Board of Visitors. …

According to the UTV news website, Mr Justice Treacy concluded: “The matter in dispute remains exclusively within the jurisdiction of the Board of Visitors.” And, according to the RTÉ news website, Queen’s has said it will convene a further hearing of the Board of Examiners to study the case. When the judgment is available on the NI Courts & Tribunals website or Bailii, I’ll return to this case.…

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Irish higher education: three further thoughts

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| Irish Society, Universities

NUIG quad, via NUIG websiteBy way of a brief update on my two recent posts about third level policy, a story in yesterday’s papers caught my eye. First, a report in the Irish Times:

Less than 15% in some Dublin areas going to college

Less than 15 per cent of Leaving Cert students in some poorer areas of Dublin are progressing to third level, according to the 2010 Irish Times feeder school list published today. … In stark contrast, most schools in south Dublin have a progression rate of 100 per cent; every one of their students who sat the Leaving Cert this year has progressed to third level.

The new figures come amid renewed controversy about the impact of the abolition of third-level fees in 1995 and as students face increased registration charges in next month’s budget. The list appears to show that “free fees” have have had only a marginal impact in boosting participation levels in poorer areas. …

The Irish Times also publishes a separate list focusing on progression rates to high-points courses, mostly in the university sector. This list is dominated by feepaying schools. …

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to locate either list on the Irish Times website. The Irish Independent has a similar story:

Parents buying school success, figures reveal

More than 90pc of students who sat the Leaving Cert in fee-paying or grind schools went on to higher education, figures compiled by the Irish Independent reveal.

…

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Higher education policy: evidence from Ireland and Europe

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| Irish Society, Universities

ESRI logo, via the ESRI websitePicking up where I left off with yesterday’s post about the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) Higher Education Policy Conference, Professor David Raffe, Director of the Centre for Educational Sociology in the University of Edinburgh spoke on “Higher education policies across the UK since devolution”, and his paper put the higher education policy issues into context. In particular, he demonstrates not only the challenges being faced by higher education at present but also the diversity of available policy responses even in the UK. I’m going to summarize those aspects of his paper which are relevant to Irish circumstances and leave to one side his application of those elements to devolution in the UK [my occasional comments about the Irish position are in parentheses], and I will use his paper to put the contribution of Dr Selina McCoy in context.…

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Higher education policy in Ireland: achievements and challenges

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| Irish Society, Universities

ESRI logo, via the ESRI websiteI attended the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) Higher Education Policy Conference yesterday on the topic “Higher Education Policy: Evidence from Ireland and Europe”. In the first session, Dr Selina McCoy of the ESRI spoke on “Higher education research in Ireland: where are we now?” and Muiris O’Connor of the Higher Education (HEA) spoke on “Higher education policy in Ireland: achievements and challenges”. In the second session, Professor David Raffe, Director of the Centre for Educational Sociology in the University of Edinburgh spoke on “Higher education policies across the UK since devolution” and Research Professor Liv Anne Støren of the Norwegian Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education, Oslo spoke on “New trends in higher education in Norway – Are traditional male students ousted by female working class students and immigrant students?”. It was a fascinating series of presentations. Muiris O’Connor’s paper was an excellent survey of the evolution and present state of the Irish higher education sector. David Raffe’s paper put the higher education policy issues into context. Selina McCoy examined the very important specific issue of access to higher education in Ireland, whilst Live Anne Støren provided a comparative perspective on that issue.…

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What are the University of Dublin and the NUI actually for? And what should they do?

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| Universities

Dublin University logo, via WikipediaThe first item in the Trinity College Dublin (TCD) news feed at present is the report that Professor Petros Florides was recently inaugurated as a Pro-Chancellor of the University of Dublin. This reminds me that I often hear the question: “what is the University of Dublin for?”. And in the context of NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, UCC, UCD et al, I often hear the similar question: “what is the NUI for?” Answers to these questions usually focus on history. The Charter of 1592 which founded TCD established it as “mother of a university”; whilst the Irish Universities Act, 1908 consolidated many of the existing Irish universities and colleges into the National University of Ireland. However, these answers only tell us where the University of Dublin and the NUI came from. They don’t tell us what these institutions are for. Other answers focus on degree-awarding powers, commencements, graduations, university governance, elections, connections with alumni, and ancillary academic services, before trailing off into a slightly embarrassed silence. These answers certainly get closer to telling us what these institutions are for, but they don’t really offer a strong justification for their continuing existence or future relevance. I’m actually a fan of both; and I think that the University of Dublin is symbiotically integral to Trinity College Dublin.…

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