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Higher Education

Ireland’s Education Yearbook 2021

Professor Kerstin Mey was appointed President of University of Limerick on 8 October 2021, following an open competition and subsequent approval from the university’s Governing Authority. Prior to that, she had served as Interim President at UL from 1 September 2020. She is also a former Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Engagement.

Higher Education

Ireland’s Education Yearbook 2021

Professor Kerstin Mey was appointed President of University of Limerick on 8 October 2021, following an open competition and subsequent approval from the university’s Governing Authority. Prior to that, she had served as Interim President at UL from 1 September 2020. She is also a former Vice President of Academic Affairs and Student Engagement.

The Tertiary Education Landscape

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.

Jim Breslin

Secretary General at the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science

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A Changing Landscape for Higher Education

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.

Dr Joseph Ryan

CEO of Technological Higher Education Association

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Nurse Education Over the Years

Reflecting on the past and meeting the challenges of the future

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.

Prof Imelda Coyne

Professor in Children’s Nursing and Co-Director of the Trinity Research in Childhood Centre, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin

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The First-Year University Experience During a Pandemic

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.

Delma Byrne

Associate Professor, Maynooth University Departments of Sociology and Education

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Assessment Choices Post-Covid-19

How Covid-19 challenged and changed assessment – perhaps permanently

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.

Dr Tomás Mac Eochagáin

Director of Academic Programmes, Griffith College

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Women Leaders in Irish Higher Education

Reflections on recent progress and the challenges of sustaining it

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.

Prof Anne Scott

Former Vice President for Equality and Diversity, NUI Galway (retired)

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Enhancing the Recognition of Prior Learning in Higher Education – Why and How?

Making the case for RPL as a powerful resource for Irish higher education

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.

Grace Edge

Project Manager, National Recognition of Prior Learning in Higher Education Project

Edwin Mernagh

Education and Training Specialist

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Micro-credentials Untethered: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing?

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?

Mark Brown

Director of the National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University

Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl

Director of Micro-credential Strategy and Innovation, Dublin City University

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Reflections on University Governance in Ireland

Navigating the accountability–autonomy continuum and the changing role of the university

This article looks at the interplay between accountability and autonomy in university governance, and how this tension impacts on the management of universities and on the academic voice in the university and in public discourse.

Thomas Collins

Former Professor of Education, Maynooth University

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Ireland’s University Presidents 2022

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.

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