Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Cometh the IMF: why Irish university costs are excessive
The web has changed higher education in ways that have yet to be
reflected institutionally. The word “lecture” derives from the idea
that the desired situation is a professor reading from a book to
students who lack books. After Gutenberg, over 500 years ago, such was
no longer the case; yet taxpayers spend massive amounts annually in
preserving this ethos. To make matters worse, this scenario discourages
students’ asking questions of the “lecturer” and often downright
forbids them interacting among themselves. Such group interaction is now
established as a powerful cognitive tool, useful both for individual
learning and arriving at the goal of education: truth.
While there is indeed a place for IRL (in real life) lectures, one in which the students have Wi-Fi enabled computers and are empowered to check every assertion the lecturer/discussion leader makes, most “teaching“ situations involve colossal waste of resources. The “lecturer” may be specifying the content of the syllabus, a task best left to publicly-available documents; (s)he may hint at the contents of an imminent exam, often unconsciously and picked up by the students in a cat-and-mouse fashion that has nothing to do with education; alternatively, the secretive nature of academia, with anonymously refereed papers and irrevocable assessments of exam papers, leads to systematic abuse.
Finally on this point, the evolution of the “research university” has led to a de-emphasis of education itself in favour of research. That dichotomy is of course an egregious one; yet “research” incarnates itself too often in state-funded projects with massive pressure to conform to received paradigms, affirmed by business interests, and interaction by the protagonists of this “research” with students only on the terms of this socially-constructed notion of “research”. The consequence is that even undergraduates will have inflicted on them less a set of courses with a common underlying theme and ethos than a set of disparate, incoherent and indeed competing partial visions of a subject whose essence dare not speak its name.
All these trends have reached something of a nadir in Ireland as we approach the teens of the third millennium of the common era, in which Ireland will be an IMF/ECB fiefdom. There are also other negative trends unique to Ireland, like the government’s obsession, attested to in parliamentary proceedings, of removing any constitutional protections from university students and staff alike. Coupled with this have been the inability to initiate multidisciplinary degrees like cognitive science, which Ireland, uniquely among OECD countries lacks; similarly, the dumbing down of computer science degrees and revisionist ethos in Irish studies beg for redress.
The scandal deepens when we consider the excessive pay awarded in Ireland to utterly unqualified and incompetent university staff, particularly administrators. The recent Irish Time earning list features, for example;
60.Martin Conry
Secretary, DCU
€148,533
Conry is one of the most powerful university administrators in Europe ; presidents come and go at DCU, but he remains there, inviolate - and in fact selecting senior staff at DCU. He was head-hunted from the nearby technical college by Danny O'Hare to replace the deeply compromised Michael Gleeson a score years ago; his qualifications were precisely a pass degree (Unlike most teachers, he did not even do the teaching diploma). The recent attack on tenure in Ireland in fact cemented his likes in position.
Small wonder, then, that the Irish government has just “invited” the IMF into Ireland. There is truly no need for the likes of Conry; in fact, use of the web can remove university administrators completely from the community of scholars. Simultaneously, costs can be cut by 99.9 % (at a conservative estimate).
Ah, you say, but that is surely removing the ethos of the university itself; the formation of civilized human beings. Unfortunately for this point, each reply given in parliament indicated that the Irish state no longer considers this as part of the role of the university
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 16/17u Samhain 2010
While there is indeed a place for IRL (in real life) lectures, one in which the students have Wi-Fi enabled computers and are empowered to check every assertion the lecturer/discussion leader makes, most “teaching“ situations involve colossal waste of resources. The “lecturer” may be specifying the content of the syllabus, a task best left to publicly-available documents; (s)he may hint at the contents of an imminent exam, often unconsciously and picked up by the students in a cat-and-mouse fashion that has nothing to do with education; alternatively, the secretive nature of academia, with anonymously refereed papers and irrevocable assessments of exam papers, leads to systematic abuse.
Finally on this point, the evolution of the “research university” has led to a de-emphasis of education itself in favour of research. That dichotomy is of course an egregious one; yet “research” incarnates itself too often in state-funded projects with massive pressure to conform to received paradigms, affirmed by business interests, and interaction by the protagonists of this “research” with students only on the terms of this socially-constructed notion of “research”. The consequence is that even undergraduates will have inflicted on them less a set of courses with a common underlying theme and ethos than a set of disparate, incoherent and indeed competing partial visions of a subject whose essence dare not speak its name.
All these trends have reached something of a nadir in Ireland as we approach the teens of the third millennium of the common era, in which Ireland will be an IMF/ECB fiefdom. There are also other negative trends unique to Ireland, like the government’s obsession, attested to in parliamentary proceedings, of removing any constitutional protections from university students and staff alike. Coupled with this have been the inability to initiate multidisciplinary degrees like cognitive science, which Ireland, uniquely among OECD countries lacks; similarly, the dumbing down of computer science degrees and revisionist ethos in Irish studies beg for redress.
The scandal deepens when we consider the excessive pay awarded in Ireland to utterly unqualified and incompetent university staff, particularly administrators. The recent Irish Time earning list features, for example;
60.Martin Conry
Secretary, DCU
€148,533
Conry is one of the most powerful university administrators in Europe ; presidents come and go at DCU, but he remains there, inviolate - and in fact selecting senior staff at DCU. He was head-hunted from the nearby technical college by Danny O'Hare to replace the deeply compromised Michael Gleeson a score years ago; his qualifications were precisely a pass degree (Unlike most teachers, he did not even do the teaching diploma). The recent attack on tenure in Ireland in fact cemented his likes in position.
Small wonder, then, that the Irish government has just “invited” the IMF into Ireland. There is truly no need for the likes of Conry; in fact, use of the web can remove university administrators completely from the community of scholars. Simultaneously, costs can be cut by 99.9 % (at a conservative estimate).
Ah, you say, but that is surely removing the ethos of the university itself; the formation of civilized human beings. Unfortunately for this point, each reply given in parliament indicated that the Irish state no longer considers this as part of the role of the university
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 16/17u Samhain 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Who runs DCU? Who owns DCU?
DCU was never accredited, as already pointed out here, but it is not
fair to say that its degrees are worth less than the paper they are
printed on, as was ruled about the nascent University of Limerick in a
1980's review. That is because thousands of good students have gone
through the system, however that was compromised right from the start.
The fact that the chair of the accreditation panel, Michael Gleeson,
accepted a job at DCU prior to delivering his report on the
accreditation of what was the NIHED does not cast aspersions on the
graduates. It does follow that these students have been let down by what
passes for management at DCU, who owed these often very diligent and
bright students an impeccable and transparent accreditation process.
Speaking of management; it has never been terribly clear what the power structure is at DCU beyond the autocracy initiated by O'Hare and brought to its culmination by his successor. O'Hare was commissioned to build a university and instead set the scene for the kind of absurdities we are about to witness. For example, in a famous episode reported in the Irish Times;
The unmasking of "Chancellor" Mella Carroll
“The president of Dublin City University, Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, has personally apologised to the university's chancellor, Miss Justice Carroll, after he accidentally sent a late-night e-mail critical of her to the university's entire governing authority....
Miss Justice Carroll, who did not receive the e-mail herself but who was sent a copy by The Irish Times”
So why did Ms Carroll not receive the e-mail sent out to the whole of governing authority (which in DCU has had a token academic membership), given that she was in fact chair of that body?
Only when I sent her an e-mail did I find out. As it happens, the e-mail bounced, from the address of her predecessor, who was then chair of IBM. In short, the late Ms Carroll's role in the authority was a sham; in fact, it is explicable perhaps by the fact that transgression of the law of the land by DCU, of which we have seen rather a lot in the courts, is to be investigated on behalf of the taxpayer who funds the institution – by a High Court judge! Then they replaced her with Renaissance FF (Fianna Fail) hack David Byrne, an ex-Attorney General, for whatever that's worth - apart of course from facing down nosy Visitors.
That might seem a coincidence (!) had the same process not recurred in the last month. Many of my personal possessions were seized illegally by DCU in 2002, giving time to plagiarize the epochal work on the “Sonas” system, the subject of the NDA exchange (as equals) with Stanford, to which I am now returning. I wrote to the president Brian Mac Craith to ask for my material back (and since none has been returned, off to court we go), to find the e-mail bouncing from – Marion Burns, head of HR! Ms Burns is not an academic of any description (or much of a skier, like her predecessor); I alerted Mac Craith and my legal team to what happened. Of course, Brian's modest CV and experience would not have facilitated his assuming his current role were he not a FF plant.
We are off to court also on the remedy chosen by the EAT. I accused the EAT some months ago of corruption, indeed criminality, and stand by those accusations. In the meantime, while we await a remedy that will do justice to tenure and my colleagues' unanimous vote for my reinstatement, I have started enrolling for the online university described below – I invite anyone who wishes in Ireland to question my credentials in setting it up – and intend to offer the students abused by DCU the chance to register for degrees there.
U of I, now enrolling
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 7u Samhain 2010
PS These are big claims
1. On the re-routing of Mac Craith's mail;
I sent as follows;
From: "Sean O'Nuallain"
To: "joseph morris" , "alan smeaton"
Cc: "president"
Note Burns is nowhere on the list
This returned immediately
The following addressees of your message have been processed by the mail server:
Marian.Burns@dcu.ie; Failed; 5.4.6 (routing loop detected)
When I sent to Mac Craith's personal e-mail the same thing happened, so it wasn't our other 2 heroes
2. The EAT suspended my proceedings in 2004 on the basis of a High court action I was engaged in, decreed to cause an overlap between the HC and EAT, and refused to re-engage even when I write to say I had suspended it
My lawyers then pointed out in Jan 2010 that the EAT was legally wrong, as it is ok to have an overlap between the HC and EAT. Then Kate O'Mahony, chair of the EAT, said the problem was that there was NO overlap, and said there was a recent legal precedent. My lawyers asked for the precedent; a minute later she said there was no such precedent
You can't make this stuff up. I knew the chances of reinstatement from a criminal like Ko'M were zero. How many lives has she ruined in her kangaroo court? I am not mentioning the numerous adjournments she gave DCU, and the rulings in DCU's favour which she reversed immediately I hired a legal team.
See you in a real courtroom, Kate. And I kept my feet on the desk throughout my testimony as a show of contempt for you and what has been described on my website for some years as the "farcical EAT"
Next time my feet will be on the ground. 9u Samhain 2010
Speaking of management; it has never been terribly clear what the power structure is at DCU beyond the autocracy initiated by O'Hare and brought to its culmination by his successor. O'Hare was commissioned to build a university and instead set the scene for the kind of absurdities we are about to witness. For example, in a famous episode reported in the Irish Times;
The unmasking of "Chancellor" Mella Carroll
“The president of Dublin City University, Prof Ferdinand von Prondzynski, has personally apologised to the university's chancellor, Miss Justice Carroll, after he accidentally sent a late-night e-mail critical of her to the university's entire governing authority....
Miss Justice Carroll, who did not receive the e-mail herself but who was sent a copy by The Irish Times”
So why did Ms Carroll not receive the e-mail sent out to the whole of governing authority (which in DCU has had a token academic membership), given that she was in fact chair of that body?
Only when I sent her an e-mail did I find out. As it happens, the e-mail bounced, from the address of her predecessor, who was then chair of IBM. In short, the late Ms Carroll's role in the authority was a sham; in fact, it is explicable perhaps by the fact that transgression of the law of the land by DCU, of which we have seen rather a lot in the courts, is to be investigated on behalf of the taxpayer who funds the institution – by a High Court judge! Then they replaced her with Renaissance FF (Fianna Fail) hack David Byrne, an ex-Attorney General, for whatever that's worth - apart of course from facing down nosy Visitors.
That might seem a coincidence (!) had the same process not recurred in the last month. Many of my personal possessions were seized illegally by DCU in 2002, giving time to plagiarize the epochal work on the “Sonas” system, the subject of the NDA exchange (as equals) with Stanford, to which I am now returning. I wrote to the president Brian Mac Craith to ask for my material back (and since none has been returned, off to court we go), to find the e-mail bouncing from – Marion Burns, head of HR! Ms Burns is not an academic of any description (or much of a skier, like her predecessor); I alerted Mac Craith and my legal team to what happened. Of course, Brian's modest CV and experience would not have facilitated his assuming his current role were he not a FF plant.
We are off to court also on the remedy chosen by the EAT. I accused the EAT some months ago of corruption, indeed criminality, and stand by those accusations. In the meantime, while we await a remedy that will do justice to tenure and my colleagues' unanimous vote for my reinstatement, I have started enrolling for the online university described below – I invite anyone who wishes in Ireland to question my credentials in setting it up – and intend to offer the students abused by DCU the chance to register for degrees there.
U of I, now enrolling
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 7u Samhain 2010
PS These are big claims
1. On the re-routing of Mac Craith's mail;
I sent as follows;
From: "Sean O'Nuallain"
To: "joseph morris" , "alan smeaton"
Cc: "president"
Note Burns is nowhere on the list
This returned immediately
The following addressees of your message have been processed by the mail server:
Marian.Burns@dcu.ie; Failed; 5.4.6 (routing loop detected)
When I sent to Mac Craith's personal e-mail the same thing happened, so it wasn't our other 2 heroes
2. The EAT suspended my proceedings in 2004 on the basis of a High court action I was engaged in, decreed to cause an overlap between the HC and EAT, and refused to re-engage even when I write to say I had suspended it
My lawyers then pointed out in Jan 2010 that the EAT was legally wrong, as it is ok to have an overlap between the HC and EAT. Then Kate O'Mahony, chair of the EAT, said the problem was that there was NO overlap, and said there was a recent legal precedent. My lawyers asked for the precedent; a minute later she said there was no such precedent
You can't make this stuff up. I knew the chances of reinstatement from a criminal like Ko'M were zero. How many lives has she ruined in her kangaroo court? I am not mentioning the numerous adjournments she gave DCU, and the rulings in DCU's favour which she reversed immediately I hired a legal team.
See you in a real courtroom, Kate. And I kept my feet on the desk throughout my testimony as a show of contempt for you and what has been described on my website for some years as the "farcical EAT"
Next time my feet will be on the ground. 9u Samhain 2010
Monday, November 1, 2010
DCU loses another one
So 700k (at a conservative guess) of taxpayers' money was wasted on yet another case by university management
In fact, they have now lost my case twice - - one at the Rights' commissioners and now at the full EAT
Seán Ó Nualláin Ph.D 1u Samhain 2010
