ARAM and how it's affecting the college

cuckoo

xeduCat wrote:

You should call up the Provost and ask him that. It's a very good question...

I'm sure he'd be delighted to hear from me at 1.15am, actually, that's a good idea.....being a physics head all he can give me a hand with my exam revision once we've finished discussing ARAM.

Boston

With regards to the TN article, I was largely disappointed. It seemed to overly focus of the damage to the arts subjects, and the benefit to physics, while ignoring the fact that allow of "science" courses are suffering also.

Andrew, I don't know what the situation with TN is, but If you'd like an interview with a third year engineer or two on ARAm, then feel drop me a pm.

That was the last edition of the year. Record still has one edition to come out though.

John

I haven't been in college to read it yet.

Boston

Theres some good general stuff in it, for instance I wasn't aware of some of the weighting figures presented, nor the exact worth of a postgrade. What was said was grand, just didn't say enough of it.

Awayindahils

LiouVille wrote:

Theres some good general stuff in it, for instance I wasn't aware of some of the weighting figures presented, nor the exact worth of a postgrade. What was said was grand, just didn't say enough of it.

thars whats i felt too, but then it may be a general reflection of how little the student body knows. as in all we're doing is speculating here about course cuts and no one knows what is actually goign to happen. i was glad that TN brought alot more clarity to the whoel thing, btu what peopel have been aminly tlaking to em about today is the Coca-Cola funding of economics becuase firstly its coke, and secondly it is instantly more relatable and even a very absent students know that funding for lecturships means good lecturships. ARAM even with too college paper articles and opion etc is still up in the air and the concrete results seem to barely tangeable, some peopel are expecting the worst,and others are veiwing it as a chance for shcools ot become independet, oh and theres peopel down the hamilton dancing arouind with joy, but i kinda felt that there was a general lack of reaction ot the whole thing.

TN did a good job but students still didnt seem to eb able to instantly relate to it, or try to put into context what it will eman for them. though i wanst really around much today so maybe there'll be more buzz/anger/concern/even joy about ti tomorrow.

Dave3x

I wrote the piece for TN for ARAM. It took me a week to wrap my head around it, and the orginal draft was 1400 words or more of stff that really addressed the technicalities- but let's face it, who'll read that? So the editorial staff (in their wisdom) set me off on a re-write (or three) and what resulted was something that people would actually read, and hopefully create a bit of awareness. Originally I thought that there might not be enough written, but seriously, it just wouldn't work. Donal in the SU can give you a general overview, and it's probably going to come up again next year in a big way (when schools lose or gain 70%+ of their over- or under-funding.

Crash

Actually i just wrote off a long meandering email to one of the possibles for next years Dean of engineering enquiring as to his whole views on the thing, seeing as when he was canvassing my vote he brought it up. should be interesting to read what he says.

Awayindahils

Dave3x wrote:

I wrote the piece for TN for ARAM. It took me a week to wrap my head around it, and the orginal draft was 1400 words or more of stff that really addressed the technicalities- but let's face it, who'll read that? So the editorial staff (in their wisdom) set me off on a re-write (or three) and what resulted was something that people would actually read, and hopefully create a bit of awareness. Originally I thought that there might not be enough written, but seriously, it just wouldn't work. Donal in the SU can give you a general overview, and it's probably going to come up again next year in a big way (when schools lose or gain 70%+ of their over- or under-funding.

i thought the piece written for TN was quite good, just coke will always be a bigger issue in this college, and believe me i appricate how difficult it is to get ones head arond ARAM. i wasn't disappointed with the piece in TN, just more regreting student apathy.

Dave3x

Dave3x wrote:

Donal in the SU can give you a general overview, and it's probably going to come up again next year in a big way (when schools lose or gain 70%+ of their over- or under-funding.

Just to confirm, in 2005/6 Schools received 10% less/more. They will receive 40% less/more in 2006/7.

Dave3x

Sorry, should have been more clear! (bit stupid of me, no?)

Irish Times

From here: http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/letters/2006/0510/index.html#1146660073762

Irish Times wrote:

CUTS IN UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION

Madam, - Alison Donnelly (Letters, May 7th,) highlights one issue related to the current emphasis on fourth-level education programmes in our universities, namely, the lack of opportunities for future graduates from such programmes.

There is a related issue, however, which may have implications for many more people: that is, the transfer of education resources from third level to fourth level.

In its wisdom, Trinity College, or those that drive it these days, has taken a conscious decision to promote research activities at the expense of undergraduate teaching and has restructured its resource allocation model to bring this about.

I understand that similar decisions have been taken in at least two other colleges.

While I fully support moves to increase and improve research activity, I take grave exception to doing so at the expense of undergraduate education.

Trinity College is proud of its undergraduate education record and much effort and commitment has been invested by its staff to make it as good as it is.

Many staff are engaged in continuing improvement of undergraduate education.

However, under the new resource allocation model, this will become a thing of the past and the quality of our undergraduate education will decline, with reductions in small group teaching, continuous assessment and inter disciplinary collaboration, among others.

There is also likely to be an increase in the use of part-time teachers, as full-time academics who were hired to do the job will instead be diverted into more research or not replaced on retirement.

While part-time teaching per se is not a bad thing, and I have known several excellent part time teachers, an over-reliance on part-time teaching cannot be good for the students' learning experience.

Given the Government's oft repeated statement that we need more high-quality graduates to feed the new knowledge-based economy, this unilateral move by the Trinity College authorities can hardly be good news for the Government.

However, the Government itself is responsible for another major dilemma facing undergraduate education in all our universities, that is, the series of cuts in third-level funding made by former minister for education Noel Dempsey.

These cuts have put a huge hole in resources available for undergraduate education which will continue until the level of funding is adjusted upwards again to reverse the cuts.

This is in addition to the refusal by the Government to cover the costs incurred by all third-level institutions in paying for the benchmarking awards which the Government itself ordained. - Yours, etc,

Dr MICHAEL STUART, Department of Statistics, Trinity College, Dublin.

Stargal

I don't know this Dr. Stuart but well done to him for sticking his head above the parapet and making public what has become increasingly obvious as schools begin to grapple with the ARAM 'adjustments' - that undergrads are going to be screwed.

stargal

stargal wrote:

I don't know this Dr. Stuart but well done to him for sticking his head above the parapet and making public what has become increasingly obvious as schools begin to grapple with the ARAM 'adjustments' - that undergrads are going to be screwed.

Not to mention a wish from other Schools to cut down in Service Teaching to save money (which was mentioned). It is a truly great letter.

Boston

Do you know him Myth

I've no idea who he is, bar from what I found out from the stats website and peoplefinder.

europerson

Here's the man:

dont post pictures of lecturers please - crash_000

gilroyb

europerson wrote:

Here's the man:

<<snip>>

No wonder they managed to copy the library for Star Wars, George Lucas is a stats lecturer!

Boston

Could we

1) keep this on topic, (posting pictures of lecturers is bad form imho, though I'm not a mod)

2) Not rip the piss out of someone who had the balls to stand up for us, undergraduates. It can't have been easy for the guy.

europerson

LiouVille wrote:

Could we

1) keep this on topic, (posting pictures of lecturers is bad form imho, though I'm not a mod)

2) Not rip the piss out of someone who had the balls to stand up for us, undergraduates. It can't have been easy for the guy.

I'm suggesting that we ought to be proud of this man, who stood up for us undergraduates. I'm not trying to make fun of him.

Awayindahils

mmh fair play to him, at least soemone has finally taken an offcial stance on ARAM.

Crash

Letter campaign folks? if a few of us get published in the times letters page, could make some tiny, miniscule amount of difference :P

europerson

&#231 wrote: »

Letter campaign folks? if a few of us get published in the times letters page, could make some tiny, miniscule amount of difference :P

That's a good idea. I wonder whether the Provost reads The Irish Times though.

europerson

Actually, I'm sure someone would tell him, anyway.

Time Magazine

I have been informed that Trinity will be losing a fine economics staff member, Prof. Frances Ruane. She will become the director of the ESRI.

Seeing as she lost the election for Provost to Prof. Hegarty, one wonders if we'd be hearing about ARAM had the vote swung the other way.

Perhaps Trinity's first casuality?

Edwardius

we don't care and NO! now stop overplaying your usefulness, bitch!


Edit: oops scratch that last comment (the one just deleted). That was something else. I'll let you get back to lamenting your bean counters!

cuckoo

Angry Banana wrote:

Seeing as she lost the election for Provost to Prof. Hegarty, one wonders if we'd be hearing about ARAM had the vote swung the other way.

Didn't the notion of ARAM originate from within the economics dept?

Maybe Prof Ruane wanted a change of scenery, is if defo she was ARAMed out of Trinity?

Time Magazine

Well ARAM was invented by an economics professor, but in his role as Bursar.

No guarantee she's leaving because of ARAM at all.

Pet

While it's fun to play the typical "screw those annoying BESShead gimps" science student role to annoy certain hackish types, losing any respected staff member is bad news for Trinity. We're a university, not some kind of IT based on producing a skilled workforce. We need economics as much as we need arts as much as we need science. So, believe it or not, the cutbacks occurring in languages and such bother me too. But I'm only a lowly science student, what can I do?

Btw, in case anyone is wondering, we undergraduates don't see much of the money pumped into science by college/the govt. If you don't believe me, take a walk down and look at the state of Goldsmith Hall, where we have our lectures.

gilroyb

Ruane is a very accomplished woman, quite a loss to college as a whole. She has been very prominent on a range of issues including increasing and improving Irish developmental aid. Just in case people think all economists are heartless.

This shows that ARAM isn't the 'tool of economists' that some here have portrayed it as. It was brought in by an economics lecturer (as bursar) because he truely believed that this change was necessary. The economics department is already somewhat below the powerhouse level it may once have been, and will be deprived of at least three of their top lecurers next year. Due to lack of funding replacing them with long term hires is close to impossible, and little chance of short term hires as they simply become long term.

While I am still supportive of ARAM, my point is that it is ridiculous to suggest that it was a money grab by O'Hagan for his department. This college appears to be broke, and needs serious funding increases across the board. I think TCD will be more efficient with ARAM than it was without it, but if quality is to be maintained then the government is going to have to be pursuaded to turn the funding tap back on.