[…]Affairs, Waqar Ahmed said: “USI believes the postgraduate research community urgently needs help and reform, and we hope the review will deliver measures to improve working conditions. We are committed to supporting the postgraduate research community and are looking forward to engaging with the review co-chairs and other stakeholders to ensure the review is conducted in a transparent and inclusive manner.” USI will submit its newly approved Postgraduate Researchers’ Rights Charter 2022 to the PhD review. The charter advocates for employee status for researchers, a minimum living wage, payment for all work and representation in decision-making […]
[…]decision not to cut or otherwise amend the student maintenance grant, which is relied upon by thousands of students who would otherwise be unable to afford third level. In addition, the decision to frontload grant repayments to four payments in the first semester, five payments in the second semester, will help students handle the increased start-up costs of study. The decision to return the €25m withheld from colleges in the 2013 and 2014 budgets is good news for education – but represents a drop in the ocean of required investment for third level education – which will experience a 1% […]
[…]that their peers would be supportive if they were to disclose experiences of sexual misconduct, and trusted their college to be fair in how they deal with reports of sexual violence. These are positives, but students who had experienced sexual misconduct tended to be less trusting of the college or to expect their peers to be supportive.” Dr Lorraine Burke, NUI Galway Post-Doctoral Researcher, report co-author said: “The SES survey shows there is a gap that our colleges need to make up in order to respond to students’ needs. Not only the needs of the large percentage of students who […]
[…]as student retention, participation in research, employability, a focus on disadvantaged groups and teaching and learning excellence, are fundamentally in line with USI policy in delivering the highest possible quality Higher Education system which can act as a vehicle for economic recovery. However, USI also cautions against HEI’s drifting from their core strengths and student needs in their pursuit of targets and criteria, and on the potential impact of funding cuts linked to the failure to deliver on these targets. Joe O’Connor, President of the Union of Students in Ireland said: In delivering a qualified welcome to this Framework, it […]