So, is a degree still worth the investment?

I’m afraid this is a bad story. I recently was chatting with a very pleasant lady while waiting for a plane, and when she found out what I did for a living she unburdened herself to me. Her husband, now in his mid-40s, had some six years previously decided that he wanted to improve his [...]

Feeding the ‘smart economy’

Nearly two years ago the Irish government published a paper (Building Ireland’s Smart Economy) in which it identified what it called the ‘smart economy’ as the best support for economic regeneration and an escape from the deepening recession. In the paper, the idea of the ‘smart economy’ was explained as follows: ‘The Smart Economy has, [...]

Universities of the future

Guest blog by Robert Cosgrave Dr. Robert Cosgrave writes on the future of tertiary education at http://tertiary21.blogspot.com/ My daughter is 4 years old. In October 2023 she will probably go to university. What will that university look like? Where will it be? Will it be anywhere? The 20th century was good to universities, marching them from an elite fringe [...]

LA’s advisory on the legal profession?

Should you spend a few moments in the terminal buildings of Los Angeles main international airport (LAX), you will every five minutes or so hear the following PA announcement: ‘You are not required to give money to solicitors. This airport does not sponsor their activities.’ I guess that’s good advice. Maybe the announcement might prompt [...]

Today’s students

I attended two events with several business leaders over the past couple of weeks, and in the course of the discussions on both occasions a number of them expressed the view that recent Irish graduates were not of the same quality and did not demonstrate the same standards as those of previous cohorts a decade [...]

Edging towards bonus points for mathematics

According to a report in the Irish Independent, all the universities except University College Dublin have now agreed that there should be bonus points in the Leaving Certificate for higher level Mathematics. UCD may also come to the same decision, but it will need to be taken by its Academic Council, which is not due [...]

Becoming very efficient

The latest suggestion that Irish universities have been offered by the government and some others is that they should be able to make further savings (and thus manage funding cuts) by being more ‘efficient’. What does this actually mean? If the ultimate efficiency is what we are after, then of course we should just admit [...]

Forwarding the papers

Last year I wrote a blog post about the role of universities in stimulating economic development. Over the months since then, this post prompted two comments. You can see the post, and the two very odd comments, here. Now as far as anyone here can see, what papers should I be forwarding to these good [...]

A story of cheerleaders and how they are to give women equality

Here’s a strange story, from the often strange world of American college sports. You may possibly not have heard of it, but in Hamden, Connecticut, there is a higher education institution called Quinnipiac University. It has hit upon an interesting wheeze to get round legal equality requirements imposed under Title IX of the Education Amendments [...]

The news from Australia

I spent a few days in Australia earlier this year, and my visit convinced me that in Europe we need to pay more attention to what is going on in that country. Here is a western democracy that has been able to avoid the recession that hit the rest of us, that has continued to [...]