Tom Boland

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File photograph of Paschal Donohoe at the launch of the annual Benefacts non-profit sector analysis in 2017. Photograph: Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland
Company assessing country’s non-profit sector shuts after funding withdrawal

Benefacts, the data analytics company that assesses Ireland’s non-profit sector, has been forced to shut down following the withdrawal of Government f(...)

Caption: Artists' impressions of what the new Grangegorman campus for DIT will look like when fully completed.
‘We won’t be teaching philosophy’: Meet Ireland’s five newest universities

Ireland will have seen five new universities established between the start of 2019 and the end of 2022. But in a relatively small country that already(...)

One danger when all students get good results is higher grades from some institutions will be valued more than equivalent grades from other institutions. Photograph: iStock
Grade inflation: lowering standards in higher education

Grade inflation – an improvement in examination grades over time without an accompanying improvement in learning or academic achievement – has been a (...)

Some are beginning to question the real value of these record-breaking higher grades. File photograph
Has the Leaving Certificate been ‘dumbed down’?

“We’re thrilled with the results – they are record-breaking,” beamed Yvonne O’Toole, principal of the Institute of Education in Dublin, shortly after (...)

Policymakers invoke the “scarring effect” of unemployment – a persistent lower income for those who have been long-term unemployed, even when the economy recovers. Photograph: Aidan Crawley
Welfare services should stick to giving advice and recommending education

Winding down the pandemic unemployment payment (PUP) carefully is the balancing act at the heart of the new Pathways to Work 2021-2025 social welfare (...)

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report in Dublin in 2009. Photograph: AP Photo/Peter Morrison
‘Shocking, shocking:’ Justice Sean Ryan on the abuses of children uncovered in his report

On May 20th, 2009, the Commission into Child Abuse published its shattering 2,600-page report. It investigated 215 residential institutions for chi(...)

Despite the OECD findings, latest employers’ surveys indicate that most businesses are happy with the standard of Irish graduates. Photograph: iStock
‘Huge drop’ in literacy levels of Irish university graduates – OECD study

Up to 6 per cent of Irish university graduates are functionally illiterate, according to latest international research. These rates, contained in an(...)

Students are most likely to get a first-class honour in Trinity (20 per cent) than in any other university, figures show. Photograph: Bryan O’Brien
Revealed: the universities most likely to award higher grades

Which university offers the best shot of a first-class or 2.1 degree? Is there much difference between University College Dublin and Trinity College D(...)

Academics should be wary of dismissing people who hold “backward” views as being irredeemably ignorant. Photograph: iStock
Academics are in the crosshairs of the populists

What could be the connection between a pub in rural Galway, populism and higher education? First the pub. On a recent evening I enjoyed a conversation(...)

Tom Boland, former head of the Higher Education Authority, said presidential candidate Peter Casey has demonstrated there is a constituency in Ireland for populism. Photograph: Alan Betson
Populism poses ‘major threat’ to autonomy of universities

Populism poses a major threat to research and the autonomy of universities, a conference has heard. The first ever Irish Postgraduate Research Confer(...)

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