This article offers an overview of tertiary education in Ireland from a contemporary governmental perspective. It sets out the department’s strategic vision, the legislative picture, the development of technological universities, and the broader landscape of further and higher education in the country.

This article reflects on the emergence of technological universities in Ireland and the significant changes in the higher-education landscape in 2021. It considers the distinctive role that the sector will play in the years ahead, the strengths resulting from its capacity for collaboration, and some of the challenges that it faces.

This article reflects on how nurse education moved away from the traditional ‘hospital-based’ schools of nursing to a system of universal degree-level education for all nurses in higher education.

The transition to higher education changed dramatically for the class of 2020. Researchers at Maynooth University studied the first-year undergraduate experience in this challenging time. This article reports on several important insights from the student responses. The pandemic has dramatically changed these students’ introduction to and experience of higher education, both academically and socially. The findings presented here offer insights relevant to all higher-education settings.

Covid-19 required higher education institutions to change their assessment practices, particularly in relation to summative, time-constrained, closed-book examinations. With various alternative assessment approaches having been used successfully during the pandemic, the question now is whether to return to pre-pandemic assessment practices or to continue to embrace and develop the changes introduced. We have the opportunity and responsibility to choose well.

This short article reflects on recent and current women leaders in Irish higher education, as we mark the end of the first year in post of the first woman president of an Irish university and the coming into post this year of three more. It also flags some of the challenges yet to be met and the vigilance required to maintain the progress made on gender equality in the sector over the past several years.

This article provides an overview and summary analysis of Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) in higher education (HE) in Ireland to date. It introduces the new National RPL in HE Project, whose vision is to make RPL an integral part of HE. It looks at why RPL is important for Irish higher education, and what actions are being planned to embed it systemically. RPL is a powerful resource that supports HE to progress a range of strategic objectives and makes access to lifelong learning a reality for many.

Micro-credentials are the latest shiny new thing attracting educators’ increasing attention. Indeed, 2021 may become known as the year of micro-credentials. On the surface, the micro-credentialling movement offers great promise in helping to redesign and even reimagine more future-fit and complementary credential frameworks to enhance employability, continuous professional development, and the goal of a thriving learning society. But is there a danger that the micro-credential may be a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

The appointment in December 2021 of Prof Mark Rogers as the interim president of University College Dublin saw six university presidents appointed in the 2021 calendar year.

With pending appointments of two more in 2022 – to lead the recently established Technological University South-East Ireland (TUSEI), and Connacht Ulster Alliance (CUA) – we will have eight new leaders in our university sector.

Read the biographical details of all university presidents.