erigena
20-10-2010, 09:24 PM
The current political leadership in Ireland will be forgiven some of their malfeasance, but the abolition of the university of Ireland (UoI)- which has begun with the disaffiliation of RCSI – will be neither forgiven nor forgotten. Most of us Irish graduates have degrees from that institution; we may henceforth have to present documentation that the UoI no longer exists, but that our degrees are still valid, and thus weaken whatever job applications we have to do. As for the notion that the changeover to a valid accrediting body can be done by this government, please take a look at what they did with the economy (not to mention the health service and well-nigh everything else)
In 2003, having been illegally dismissed by DCU, I was ordered reinstated with full back pay by a rights commissioner; in a move which destroys the notion of rights to a permanent job in the Irish civil service, DCU appealed the decision. They maintained their appeal in the face of High Court and Supreme court judgements declaring the procedures they used not just unfair, but illegal. Of course, no-one in management has been called to account for the waste of taxpayers' money
I had no time to think about it back then; I had two daughters entering their teenage years (one of whom actually finished first nationally in the baccalaureate in France in 2007 - the other has yet to finish high school), and a group of brilliant prospective postgraduate students, along with 2 equally gifted Ph.D. Candidates who were unable to work with anyone else. So I set up an independent college, and ran a 12-week semester's course in cognitive science for these students and a further international cohort. We also set up a web journal that was getting 500 hits a day by early 2003.
It became clear that the fix was in wrt the employment issue, and it remained in limbo from 2003 to 2010; luckily, I had sold my house and moved to the USA by the time the true criminality started. To protect the students' interests, I wrote references for many of them to study at good universities. Then Stanford got wind of the course I had been teaching and appointed me a faculty member in order to teach it there; 2 weeks after it commenced, they asked me to allow them to move it to “Advanced seminar” status, so that I could – like tenured faculty – write job references etc
By then (early 2006), of course, I had also been appointed a faculty member at UC Berkeley by the academic senate there, and taught there also until 2008. We have since then been waiting for the appalling mess at DCU to sort itself out. In the meantime, and as has been well-documented, a situation had arisen whereby faculty at the Irish universities are subject to summary dismissal, students can be bullied by staff. And the UoI no longer exists
The brilliant minds at the HEA think that they have a monopoly on Irish education, and are prepared to sue if anyone sets up a university in Ireland without their nihil obstat. Of course, the notion that universities require a physical location is cro-magnon, and so herewith is a simple little website to demonstrate to them what will happen if they continue along this dark path;
http://www.universityofireland.com/index.html
The brand “Ireland” is one I would be happy to associate myself with; in that, presumably, I differ from them. Likewise, specialist courses in areas like cognitive Science can be developed that will cut through the noise generated by the rubbish University of Phoenix and its ilk. The courses sampled on this website were taught by me for credit at Stanford and Berkeley. Of course, should they relent and give the Irish public back its UoI, I am happy to give the domain (which should have been bought by the state in 1995) back to the Irish people.
In 2003, having been illegally dismissed by DCU, I was ordered reinstated with full back pay by a rights commissioner; in a move which destroys the notion of rights to a permanent job in the Irish civil service, DCU appealed the decision. They maintained their appeal in the face of High Court and Supreme court judgements declaring the procedures they used not just unfair, but illegal. Of course, no-one in management has been called to account for the waste of taxpayers' money
I had no time to think about it back then; I had two daughters entering their teenage years (one of whom actually finished first nationally in the baccalaureate in France in 2007 - the other has yet to finish high school), and a group of brilliant prospective postgraduate students, along with 2 equally gifted Ph.D. Candidates who were unable to work with anyone else. So I set up an independent college, and ran a 12-week semester's course in cognitive science for these students and a further international cohort. We also set up a web journal that was getting 500 hits a day by early 2003.
It became clear that the fix was in wrt the employment issue, and it remained in limbo from 2003 to 2010; luckily, I had sold my house and moved to the USA by the time the true criminality started. To protect the students' interests, I wrote references for many of them to study at good universities. Then Stanford got wind of the course I had been teaching and appointed me a faculty member in order to teach it there; 2 weeks after it commenced, they asked me to allow them to move it to “Advanced seminar” status, so that I could – like tenured faculty – write job references etc
By then (early 2006), of course, I had also been appointed a faculty member at UC Berkeley by the academic senate there, and taught there also until 2008. We have since then been waiting for the appalling mess at DCU to sort itself out. In the meantime, and as has been well-documented, a situation had arisen whereby faculty at the Irish universities are subject to summary dismissal, students can be bullied by staff. And the UoI no longer exists
The brilliant minds at the HEA think that they have a monopoly on Irish education, and are prepared to sue if anyone sets up a university in Ireland without their nihil obstat. Of course, the notion that universities require a physical location is cro-magnon, and so herewith is a simple little website to demonstrate to them what will happen if they continue along this dark path;
http://www.universityofireland.com/index.html
The brand “Ireland” is one I would be happy to associate myself with; in that, presumably, I differ from them. Likewise, specialist courses in areas like cognitive Science can be developed that will cut through the noise generated by the rubbish University of Phoenix and its ilk. The courses sampled on this website were taught by me for credit at Stanford and Berkeley. Of course, should they relent and give the Irish public back its UoI, I am happy to give the domain (which should have been bought by the state in 1995) back to the Irish people.