GMIT meets over low morale at institute

THE GALWAY-MAYO Institute of Technology says it is “consulting with staff” in its business school following a three-hour meeting between staff and management last week on issues relating to low morale.

A number of classes were cancelled last Monday to facilitate the meeting off campus. This follows several meetings held last month where it was reported that “motivation and morale” were at an “all-time low”, and where business school staff were concerned about lack of consultation by management, among other issues.

GMIT’s business school has been the focus of controversy and unrest dating back a number of years. Issues came to a head in March 2011 when the college management initiated an external inquiry into how it responded to and dealt with “complaints/suspicions” of plagiarism highlighted by one lecturer in 2010.

It also said it was tightening up quality standards at the college.

UCD deputy registrar of teaching and learning Prof Bairbre McRedmond, and barrister and mediator Ed Madden, were asked to conduct an independent investigation into the response to a specific incident at the college’s school of business, which had by then already been the subject of three internal inquiries.

They were to furnish a report “as quickly as practicable”, with an expected publication three weeks after investigations had concluded, according to GMIT’s terms of reference.

The investigation would cover the manner in which a complaint was made and suspicions communicated by a lecturer to the relevant department, school and institute, GMIT said. It would also focus on whether “any relevant matter was suppressed, concealed or covered up by the department, school or institute, or any member of staff”, it said.

The institute had already taken disciplinary measures against a lecturer in relation to plagiarism. Its internal inquiries had found that its school of business originally treated a misconduct allegation as a “minor” case of plagiarism by a student, when it should have been dealt with at senior management level.

GMIT said the independent investigation was continuing. It understood that the report would be completed “in the next two months”. It said some lecturers at last Monday’s meeting returned to scheduled classes, while any deferred classes would have been rescheduled so students would not have been disadvantaged.