An insider's guide to education
The UCD president, Hugh Brady, must be reasonably pleased with the pace of his reform plans. OK, the new structures will not be as wide-ranging as he wants. But he will still achieve a level of progress that would have seemed impossible a year ago.
Brady took on board many of the mistakes made in UCC and Trinity before rolling out his plans. There was more consultation (still not enough, say many academics) and there was a clever "softening up" process. The scathing report on UCD's under-performance from the Washington Advisory Group meant Belfield folk were expecting something much worse than what emerged last week. There will be more rows and protests but Brady looks odds-on to ride out the storm.
The recent OECD report presented some encouraging results for the Irish education system with top grades in reading, good grades in science and average results in science. The Education Research Centre at St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, did a splendid job of interpreting the figures. Their summary of the Irish findings is essential reading for educationalists.
Uncertainty continues about the future of the embattled UCC president, Gerry Wrixon, who is seeking a five-year extension. The Department of Finance is worried about the potential knock-on impact across the public service. There are also issues about public service pensions.
All is not lost for Wrixon, whose impressive performance in the research area, has won him strong support from the Tánaiste, Mary Harney, and a range of other senior figures.
Those nervous types in Merrion Street are in a classic Catch-22 about the extension - damned if they do and damned if they don't. One view is that Wrixon is now too contentious to be rewarded with an extension. But there is also a realisation that a failure to do so will be seized upon by critics of the reform agenda under way in UCC, TCD and UCD - and could unsettle the whole process.
Name change seems to be the order of the day. With UCD pondering a "rebranding" as Newman University, now comes news that university heads would like to change the name of their representative group, the (wait for it) Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU). Some in CHIU favour something catchy(!) such as the Irish Universities Association.
Teacher's Pet will return early in the New Year with more news and gossip. Many thanks to all who e-mailed this year. Your courage in putting your head above the parapet is appreciated. Happy Christmas to all.
teacherspet@irish-times.ie
