ARAM and how it's affecting the college

vinks

the most idiotic thing about aram is the initial 5% levy the college takes which means everyone starts off at a 5% deficit and told to make a gain on it

This is digging up an old thread, but I just noticed something in the Sindo on unison.ie back in early July which is quite relevant, as well as something recently about UCD which mentions TCD here and there.

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Link: Sun, Jul 02, 2006.

Legal action threat in colleges over languages 'turf war'

DANIEL McCONNELL

ACADEMICS in Ireland's leading universities are considering legal action against funding proposals which they say will end the teaching of many languages in their hallowed halls.

Many Arts and Humanities academics in Trinity and UCD have warned that if intended cuts in the Humanities go ahead, studies in German, French, Irish and other languages could be gone within a decade. They feel they are being sacrificed in favour of the natural sciences, which are likely to be "money spinners" that attract external funding.

Senior academics say they are being ignored by college management, and many leading professorships are not being filled. The Arts lecturers from both colleges have described the current situation as a "turf war" between them and the college management which are "obsessed with the natural sciences".

It has emerged that language departments in Trinity could have their budgets cut by up to 25 per cent over the next four years, under ARAM (Academic unit-based Resource Allocation Method), a new funds allocation system adopted by the college.

Figures quoted in a recent edition of the student newspaper, Trinity News, reveal that €2.3m is to be cut from the Vice-Deanery of Arts, which includes most languages, by 2010. Dr Ciaran Cosgrove, Head of the Hispanic Studies department, said: "There seems to be an attitude from the college management that they listen to us in what we need to progress, and then completely ignore what we say. Many chair positions are being left unfilled. There are many unhappy people in here at the moment."

It has also emerged that under ARAM almost €4m is to be cut from other departments considered to be "over funded". The news of such cuts have been greeted with much anger and fury in some faculties, and several senior academics contacted by the Sunday Independent have said that a range of options are currently being considered on how best to resist such changes. UCD, under current president, Hugh Brady, has undergone significant change, and while most academics agree that change was necessary, some senior college figures question the "quality of those changes".

Andreas Hess, senior lecturer in the department of Sociology at UCD, felt so strongly about the situation in Belfield he penned an opinion piece entitled Third level overhaul may leave intellectual desert in the Irish Times last week.

He told the Sunday Independent: "We are now faced with bureaucratic top-down policies that usually leave little creative room for individual initiatives or that care for intellectual coherence."

Second story.

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Link: Sun, Aug 06, 2006.

UCD exodus warning for 'appalling' reform

MANY leading academics at University College Dublin (UCD) have been "horrified" and "appalled" by the wholesale changes brought in by current president Dr Hugh Brady, since he took office in 2004, according to an unofficial staff survey.

Under the Brady reform plans, the number of faculties has been halved from 11 to five and more than 100 academic departments have been replaced or amalgamated into 35 or so schools. The college has now confirmed that it is to conduct a full and scientific survey to gauge growing discontent over recent and intended reforms by the college authorities.

The new official survey, which is expected to cover all schools, will be seen as an olive branch to the more disgruntled members of staff who have accused the college management of being overly authoritarian.

Earlier this summer, the Sunday Independent reported on measures being taken by both UCD and Trinity College Dublin (TCD), which could see the end of many modern language departments within the next seven to 10 years.

The situation was described by a number of senior college academics as "an open turf war between the medics who are running the colleges and the humanities".

The college's Governing Authority sanctioned the new study following an informal non-scientific survey was carried out by Dr Gerard Casey, head of the School of Philosophy, which was subsequently reported in the college's student press.

The anonymous survey, which was not sanctioned by the college authorities, highlighted deep anger and resentment across variousdepartments.

One survey entry said: "I think, alas, the rot in UCD is terminal, and those in charge are incapable of listening and learning."

Another said: "Attendance at lectures is appalling. Yet UCD makes no attempt to implement its own rules on this. Education standards are falling massively and yet the college is interested only in PR, the glossy image."

Many of the unhappy lecturers feel that if the situation continues, UCD will see a massive "brain-drain" and will be left with many second-rate ordinary staff, producing little original research. The college has also been accused of prioritising PR and spin over academia.

One lecturer said: "They say there is no money for new people. Yet the money they have spent on the six vice presidents would be enough to hire over 20 junior lecturers and academics."

"If you want to see how bad it is, just look at the number of people who are taking early retirement or going on a sabbatical to other colleges simply because they don't want to be here," said one senior academic.

Tom Garvin, the much-respected former head of the Politics Department who is leaving UCD in three weeks to take up a post at Boston College, said while the Casey survey was not scientific, it highlighted a high level of unhappiness across many departments at many levels.

Speaking to the Sunday Independent, Prof Garvin said: "There is a lot of unease. It is as if the college has regressed to a more authoritarian regime, with orders coming from non-academic administrators that are remote from the lecturers and professors."

Andres Hess, a senior lecturer in Sociology at UCD, has openly criticised the manner in which the university is being run, saying that trying to adapt human-science-style processes to many sides of academic life won't work and will ultimately damage the quality of education on offer at Belfield.

"We find bureaucratic top-down policies that usually leave little creative room for individual initiatives or that care for intellectual coherence. Even worse are those mindlessly repeated mantras that tell academics that the scholar is now dead but that natural-science-style peer-reviewed articles and team research are in," he said.

Officially, UCD confirmed that a review is to take place but insisted that it is part of its strategic planning process and was not sanctioned as a result of the Casey survey. The college said the review is likely to take place early in 2007.

I'm going to jump in here with a comment that no one seems to have brought up...

End of Free education? Introduction of fees for University?

Seeing the controversey that a €10 fee raised in another thread, before I get cut to pieces by my new friends Shane, Andrew and Carnivore.. can we all hold back and consider these questions:

What effect did the introduction of fees in the UK have on college funding?

What effect did the introduction of fees in the UK have on student levels?

Where there any new packages such as lifetime interest free loans introduced?

Would the introduction of fees combined with the ARAM program help solve the above mentioned problems?

I am not advocating the introduction of fees - merely interested in what effects they had in Britain, be they positive or negative so please hold back on my slaughtering!!

Pet

I'm all for the reintroduction of fees for those over a certain income level. But it would have to be a high income level, not medical card threshold (which is quite frankly stupid, I know plenty of people who are *just* outside the income bracket and have a serious struggle).

Knowing our brilliant government though, they'd make a total ass of it all, so I wouldn't want to leave it up to them to arrange.

If the fees accrued to the particular department of the college, say a Bess students fees go to whatever modules etc. they take.. that could help ease the depts. financial burden

Endymion

I too am all for reintroducing fees, however cut the income tax for everyone down to the same low level of about 30%. I Go off and I buy my education, why should I have to pay again for it through higher taxation?

It's always a good trick to make people think their not going ot pay for something. The goverment doesn't dig up money, most of the economic success we've had in recent years has been due to the huge number of graduates we produce.

Yer man psycho mentioned england, if fees where introduced here, i could allot of students going over there for an education.

If the fees accrued to the particular department of the college, say a Bess students fees go to whatever modules etc. they take.. that could help ease the depts. financial burden

Thats not a good idea. Thats system would require some kind of flexible fees and different fees for each course, engineering requires more money then bess, bess mroe then arts, arts more then. That would really suck as you'd get people picking courses bassed on price tag.

English students pay about $2250 per year for college..

I was thinking along the lines of a flat fee - say $2000 for any course in any college.

This is fairer then charging on a course per course basis as that would not introduce the element of people going for the cheapest course and would stop colleges entering a price war

Endymion

I can see registration fees hitting 2000 in the next 5-6 years. What about tax relief once you graduate in the amounth equal to what you paid.

Ps why are you quoting things in dollars after a tiny amounth of research I've found that students would ahve to pay anything from 1100 sterling to 3000 sterling a year.

Nietzschean

original_psycho wrote:

This is fairer then charging on a course per course basis as that would not introduce the element of people going for the cheapest course and would stop colleges entering a price war

College's won't enter into a price war....thats a silly idea tbh

As for people choosing courses because they are cheaper, em fine? , tbh if there is a decent interest free loan system with no repayments for ~10 years. Anyone who chooses their course based on cost shouldn't be in the uni in the first place.

things like medicine are more expensive to run, but in the long run i can't say i've heard of many doctors in their 40's n 50's broke? The fees related to do with paying for doctors comes from their expertise, which the customer is paying for...in the end then isn't it only fair that they would have to pay more as it costs more to teach them that?

typo - the $ and € symbol are on the same key.

What research is this?

Endymion

original_psycho wrote:

typo - the $ and € symbol are on the same key.

What research is this?

google = BBC article about university fees.

sully-gormo

In the UK colleges can charge up to 3 grand sterling. Which is €4k-5k

IMO there should be fees, but only for those earning above €150k or thereabouts. If there have to be cuts like this while at the same time the university could be hitting ppl who can afford it with the true cost of their education, its a preety 5hitty state of affairs