Waterford University discussion

Aquos76

JimWinters wrote: »

Is the article online? At first I was under the impression he was a civil servant but then I heard his company https://www.bhassociates.eu/ were brought in to run the merger. I take it that it’s another “jobs for the boys” arrangement?

https://waterford-news.ie/2021/01/02/it-carlow-were-not-consulted-about-boland-appointment/

Wanderer78

JimWinters wrote:

were brought in to run the merger. I take it that it’s another “jobs for the boys†arrangement?

Jesus, neoliberalism is just bloody disturbing

azimuth17

JimWinters wrote: »

Is the article online? At first I was under the impression he was a civil servant but then I heard his company https://www.bhassociates.eu/ were brought in to run the merger. I take it that it’s another “jobs for the boys” arrangement?

Far more dangerous than "jobs for the boys". A handpicked insider and ex-head of the Higher Education Authority, with an anti WIT track record, selected to do a hatchet job on WIT. He was chosen by Simon Harris, Minister for Further Education, the man who as Minister for Health made a career of opposing cardiology expansion at UHW. A Fine Gael ready up to shaft WIT.

Bards

azimuth17 wrote: »

Far more dangerous than "jobs for the boys". A handpicked insider and ex-head of the Higher Education Authority, with an anti WIT track record, selected to do a hatchet job on WIT. He was chosen by Simon Harris, Minister for Further Education, the man who as Minister for Health made a career of opposing cardiology expansion at UHW. A Fine Gael ready up to shaft WIT.

And what's worse is SF is actually endorsing the TUSE instead of demanding Waterford become a full blown university and carlow becomes the TU

imacman

More TU game changer waffle coming out of CIT
Merger of colleges is a potential game-changer and great for Cork

What I did find interesting was this line

Even in the last 12 to 18 months, we have taken in an extra €63m in investment from the State for buildings and research. There is another €50m coming down the track, in terms of a new building in CIT and in Tralee.

Thats 113 million going to CIT and to a lesser extent ITTralee. I have looked and in terms of funding to WIT all I could find was a 2 million campus development grant and the new 20 million building which hasn't gone to tender yet. CIT got and 18 million campus development grant alone

Cork Institute of Technology gets €18m to upgrade its Bishopstown campus

Jesus its so depressing - scratch that - its so scandalous how WIT and Waterford are treated by this and preceding governments.

vriesmays

Bards wrote: »

And what's worse is SF is actually endorsing the TUSE instead of demanding Waterford become a full blown university and carlow becomes the TU

Do you think the SE will get two universities.

914

vriesmays wrote: »

Do you think the SE will get two universities.

Not a fear of it, but if any government was serious about addressing the issues of the SE, then this would be the way forward. One fully fledged Uni and the other TU, that would actually put us on par with other regions.

mart 23

Create the TUSE and the money will flow into SE Education sector like Cork and Kerry. The chance to do so is available.

invara

mart 23 wrote: »

Create the TUSE and the money will flow into SE Education sector like Cork and Kerry. The chance to do so is available.

Not a chance of this working as a plan.

Cork got the loot because the country is run from Cork South Central, and the money flowed into CIT before they signed off on their TU application.

Patronage is patronage. We have none, so we are not getting anything before or after the merger unless we have some political leverage- and the only leverage is to walk away from the TU without signing their bits of paper.

WRH/UHW was promised the sun moon and stars to sign on to the Cork group, none of which was delivered. Just look at the fight to get hold of vaccine for UHW frontline staff whilst it was being doled out to non-critical staff in CUH.

WIT staff, management, and regional stakeholders need to hold the line to get equitable resources for the coming generations of young people in the region.

BBM77

mart 23 wrote: »

Create the TUSE and the money will flow into SE Education sector like Cork and Kerry. The chance to do so is available.

Most naïve post ever!

imacman

mart 23 wrote: »

Create the TUSE and the money will flow into SE Education sector like Cork and Kerry. The chance to do so is available.

You obviously don't know about the long history of underinvestment in WIT and Waterford generally. We don't have any political clout ( and haven't had for over a decade) and it has cost us investment over and over again .

See my post above about 113 million into CIT and a much lesser extent IT Tralee , only 22 Million into WIT which includes a building that has been delayed for over 10 years but if you listen to the politicians you would think its a new development. Waterford is always at the bottom of the list and we have learned from bitter experience that isn't going to change.

azimuth17

mart 23 wrote: »

Create the TUSE and the money will flow into SE Education sector like Cork and Kerry. The chance to do so is available.

Do you believe in unicorns by the way?

Harry Palmr

Click on it for the full thread.

https://twitter.com/MattShanahanTD/status/1349091505789693954

SeanieW1977

At least Matt has some semblence of an understanding on the issue.

Cullinane, Butler, Cummins, Cathasaigh (whos brother is a director in Carlow IT!) are just totally complicit here.

This is political genocide

imacman

https://twitter.com/MattShanahanTD/status/1349124863471050753?s=20
We have been saying this thread for years , WIT is massively under appreciated and even with the systematic under funding they get from the government it excels in the sector ( Institute of Technology of the year this year and ranked higher than Maynooth University and TUD) . It is a bit troubling that the stats are coming as a surprise to Matt but at least he went looking. I bet the rest our Tds have no idea and don't really care about the WIT stats and performance compared to Carlow and the rest of the IT sector .

Harry Palmr

Shanahan was pretty written off as a FF flunky by another name when elected but he is the only one taking any interest in the fate of WIT.

914

Harry Palmr wrote: »

Shanahan was pretty written off as a FF flunky by another name when elected but he is the only one taking any interest in the fate of WIT.

He is. I contacted all our political reps and to be fair to Shanaha he was only one of two (Cullinane) who gave a detailed reply and was fully supportive in supporting Waterford on Uni status.

The other three (Butler, Cummins and Cathasaigh) stated how supportive they were of the TU merger and had full confidence in it while failing to answer any of the concerns on the matter which I raised, such as HQ, reasoning behind the merger, what the merger actually achieves, how the south east will be any stronger as every other IT is ear marked for TU status etc) while also failing to supply any reasoning behind why they are so supportive or why they feel it is beneficial to the region.

One of the three even finished their response with this

"It is my belief that if we have a TUSE now, it is at least a university. Not the university I (or most other people would like us to have) but it is still a university."

If that is the attitude we are well and truly f***ed

notfromhere

WIT can't make a decision, if they are open or closed,making staff come in to work.Has gotten so bad that the unions are involved.

914

notfromhere wrote: »

WIT can't make a decision, if they are open or closed,making staff come in to work.Has gotten so bad that the unions are involved.

Are WIT not almost fully online since September?

https://amp.rte.ie/amp/1162295/

notfromhere

Yes courses are online,but all WIT buildings are open to anyone, They need to restrict access to essential staff which they are very slow in doing.

914

notfromhere wrote: »

Yes courses are online,but all WIT buildings are open to anyone, They need to restrict access to essential staff which they are very slow in doing.

Is it a case of keeping people in employment as maybe these positions can not be worked from home?

Harry Palmr

https://twitter.com/MattShanahanTD/status/1349855491552374784

azimuth17

Excellent piece in the Dail by Shanahan Harry. I just saw it on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1046083609222379&notif_id=1610700499090116&notif_t=watch_follower_video&ref=notif

Wanderer78

azimuth17 wrote:

Excellent piece in the Dail by Shanahan Harry. I just saw it on Facebook.

You have to hand it to him, he's seriously up against it there

BBM77

azimuth17 wrote: »

Excellent piece in the Dail by Shanahan Harry. I just saw it on Facebook.

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1046083609222379&notif_id=1610700499090116&notif_t=watch_follower_video&ref=notif

Seriously impressed, fair play Matt Shanahan. Our strongest TD by miles. Pity he is not in a party, he’d be a serious contender to be a minister.

vriesmays

914 wrote: »

"It is my belief that if we have a TUSE now, it is at least a university. Not the university I (or most other people would like us to have) but it is still a university."

If that is the attitude we are well and truly f***ed

A good university offers courses like medicine and theology.

Wanderer78

vriesmays wrote: »

A good university offers courses like medicine and theology.

an even better one provides a broad range of courses for all of societies needs

SeanieW1977

https://www.tuse.ie/job-opportunity-tusei-brand-manager/

Why is this position being created? A 95 grand a year PR role - basically equivalent of a Govt TD being put in to manage the communication around this!

No doubt to keep the discontent of staff from the public.

This is disgusting and worse still things must be moving very fast

Wanderer78

SeanieW1977 wrote: »

https://www.tuse.ie/job-opportunity-tusei-brand-manager/

Why is this position being created? A 95 grand a year PR role - basically equivalent of a Govt TD being put in to manage the communication around this!

No doubt to keep the discontent of staff from the public.

This is disgusting and worse still things must be moving very fast

we have commodified education

Harry Palmr

A Master's degree or Level 10 qualification in communications, PR, journalism or marketing and experience in a higher education environment is highly desirable.

Talk about being overqualified!