An insider's guide to education

TEACHER'S PET:Were the universities a victim of their own success in the weekend negotiations on the new Programme for Government?

The news was all good for the sector in the latest world university rankings from the Times Higher Education, published last week.

UCD and TCD are safely ensconced in the top 100; most of the others are on an upward trajectory.

If the news had been less positive, the Greens could scarcely have pushed for no student charges.

As it was, the Greens had their way. But could the universities learn from the tactics of the teacher unions, which were in constant contact with the Green negotiating team, pushing for concessions?

Why did no one from the university sector lift the phone to John Gormley over the weekend?

The tragedy, of course, is that universities will do well to maintain their current world rankings given the weekend events, which put more pressure on dwindling resources.

But that is a challenge for another day. For now, the likes of Hugh Brady at UCD, John Hegarty at TCD and Jim Browne at NUI Galway deserve praise for their spectacular rise through the rankings.

In his press release, Brady pointed to the rankings as very good news for the controversial UCD-TCD Innovation Alliance. But any reference to the merger was conspicuous by its absence in the release issued from College Green.

Why does the suspicion linger that, while the Innovation Alliance is seen as very good news in UCD, some in Trinity are still reserving judgment?

-A HISTORY of the Ranelagh Multi-Denominational School, which celebrated its 21st birthday this year, has just been published.

It’s the first published history of an Educate Together school and features an excellent foreword by Prof Áine Hyland, in which she details the difficult and austere climate in which courageous parents helped usher in a new era in Irish education. Tel: 01-4961722 to get a copy.

-WITHOUT ANY advance warning, the results of this year's Leaving Cert appeals landed on newsdesks last Wednesday, just as John O'Donoghue was saddling up and moving on.

But the figures from the State Examination Commission raise serious questions.

Overall, some 20 per cent of Leaving Cert marks were upgraded – but, in individual subjects, the scandal was much deeper.

The percentage of marks upgrades in some subjects was truly astonishing, including ordinary level business (56 per cent); ordinary level English (49 per cent); higher level biology (31 per cent); higher level geography (27 per cent); and higher level accounting (26 per cent).

Translation? In some subjects, one in four (or more) papers subject to appeal had been incorrectly marked.

All of this should raise questions about the marking procedures in the SEC. Some explanation is warranted.

-TO THE surprise of staff and students, Paul Mooney – the popular president of the National College of Ireland (NCI) in Dublin's IFSC – will step down early next year to pursue other interests.

Mooney may only have been president for three years, but his down-to earth, genial approach and plain speaking made a huge impact across the sector.

The son of a labourer from Dublin’s inner city, he was very much a left of field choice for the job. Mooney left school at age 14 but made his way to the president’s chair via a butcher's apprenticeship, which ended in a PhD in Trinity. Along the way, he established a profitable HR consultancy.

Paul Mooney plans to return to HR from next February, leaving NCI chairman Denis O’Brien with the difficult task of finding a worthy successor.

-E-mail us, in confidence, at teacherspet@irishtimes.com