What's the talk of education
Reaction to Paul Mooney’s article ‘Inside third level’
Former president NCI, Paul Mooney lights the blue touch paper and stands well back. - @mediabite
This is actually a little refreshing, usually whenever education comes up only two "solutions" are ever presented, introducing more fees or more privatisation. – well, broadsheet.ie
A lot of waffle and very few ideas except the usual morale killers: longer hours, PMDS, accounting, metrics, management, etc. - @normanwyse
Mooney’s piece is an extraordinary piece of ill-informed nonsense. – @KevinDenny
Paul Mooney is neoliberal wonk interested in running a business. No useful comparison to effective pedagogical practice. – MarkMalone@soundmigration
We have excellent higher ed strategies but very poor implementation plans, limited by narrow thinking and poor practice. – @shanedonegal
Pot-kettle-black, reckon that Paul Mooney should figure out how to research properly instead of complaining about it. – @pennybridged
Paul Mooney commenting on 3rd level is like Raymond Kearns commenting on 2nd level. Awful article, all “in my (uninformed) opinion” stuff. – @michaelkls
*weary sigh gnashing of teeth*. Mooney piece based on #NCI Dublin. – @Marlalbur
Mooney taught at DCU and was president of NCI. That experience colours his assessment and recommendations. Universities should focus on research and the academic side of education while other colleges should focus on the more vocational end of third-level education. Mooney's one-size-fits-all assessment and recommendations are more appropriate for the teaching end of higher education. Differentiation and specialisation are a better way forward. – extracted from a blog by Richard Tol, Irisheconomy.ie
Interesting comments from Mooney but why did he spend such a short time in NCI surely transformative challenges take more than four years? – vinny, commenting on irisheconomy.ie's blog
Universities have been running the same teaching model for 900 years since Bologna with little innovation. If full cost recovery is introduced, for example via student loans, then more efficient and progressive private competitors would emerge to compete. – Ossian Smith, commenting on Irisheconomy.ie's blog
The Paul Mooney piece also falls down on trying to force a purely business model on higher ed. – @blogscience
Academics aren't just teachers, and switching to a teaching-focused 36-week academic year would make the job so much more boring that I'd quit and move to another country where my job still had variety – we move around a lot as it is). So what? Well, I sure wouldn't want to go to a university where lecturers were either counting down the clock til they can find a better job abroad, or resentful because finance/family/etc is forcing them to stay in a job they've grown to hate. – anacedemic, broadsheet.ie
