“Cuts in university funding for England are at odds with what’s happening in Scotland with its modest £21 million hike for 2010-11 and Northern Ireland 2009-10, but for how long? The local settlement for 2009-10 is an increase but for the life of me I can’t find up to date figures for 2010-11 other than in the three year plan which we have to think of now as fantasy …” (more)

[Brian Walker, Slugger O'Toole, 24 December]

“A debate is raging in the newspapers, blogs and the twittersphere over in the UK about Peter Mandelson’s sneaky tactic of announcing surprise extra budget cuts to English universities in a letter sent just before Christmas. The cuts are added on top of already signaled reduction in funds for research and fines for universities who over-enrolled on their programmes …” (more)

[Summa cum laude, 24 December]

“I was tempted to write a new post about what appears to be the UK government’s view on how to fund Higher Education and research, but I can’t really be bothered. I’m feeling somewhat drained and others (here and here) have written about it more eloquently than I think I can at the moment, and have pretty much summarised my general views. So, I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year …” (more)

[To the left of centre, 24 December]

“Meaghan Ludlow, an MBA student at Memorial University of Newfoundland has been named as the first recipient of a scholarship designed to build on historic links between the southeast of Ireland and the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador …” (more)

[Waterford News and Star, 23 December]

“When Lord Mandelson quietly announced cuts of 6.6% in the higher education budget for 2010‑11 this week, he did two extremely important things simultaneously. The first was to throw more than 10 years of steady university expansion under Labour, one of the signature policies of the Blair-Brown era, into sudden reverse …” (more)

[Editorial, Guardian, 24 December]

“University organisations have voiced fears about the scale of spending cuts being imposed in England by the government …” (more)

[BBC News, 24 December]

“It was always clear that the recent experience of Irish universities of significant cuts in the light of the economic downturn was also going to be a feature of British higher education funding …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 23 December]

“Acting teachers from around the world will visit NUI Galway in January as the university hosts a five-day workshop by the New York-based Michael Chekhov Association (MICHA). Michael Chekhov was the nephew of the playwright Anton Chekhov and was widely recognised as one of the greatest actors of the 20th century …” (more)

[Richie McCarthy, Galway Advertiser, 23 December]

“Pádraig Ó Céidigh, chairman of Aer Arann, one of the fastest growing regional airlines in the world with a turnover in excess of €100 million and annual passenger numbers of 1.2 million, has been appointed to the position of Adjunct Professor with NUI Galway’s JE Cairnes School of Business and Economics …” (more)

[Galway Advertiser, 23 December]

“Few ministers write bureaucratic prose with Lord Mandelson’s evident love of the form. For all its austerity, his letter on higher education funding for 2010-11 promises riches for those of us delivering flexible and part-time courses. ‘The underlying theme’, he writes, ‘is providing for diversity’. From this comes a proposal for ‘fast-track degrees that can be completed full-time in two years’ …” (more)

[Tom Sperlinger, Guardian, 23 December]

“‘Trinity Takes To The Streets’ Dublin City Marathon initiative raised over €110,000 for educational access initiatives and student hardship bursaries in Trinity. The beneficiary initiatives are the Trinity Access Programmes (TAP), National Institute for Intellectual Disability (NIID) and the Student Hardship Fund. Students and staff who participated in the TTTTS initiative celebrated the end of a successful year with ‘Pies in the Pav’ earlier this week …” (more)

[TCD Media, 18 December]

“University of South Carolina faculty member Dr Ed Madden has been selected for the 2009 – 10 Visiting Fellowship in Irish Studies sponsored by the Irish American Cultural Institute and the National University of Ireland in Galway. Only one fellowship is given annually to a scholar in Irish studies in any field or discipline to study and conduct research at the university in Galway …” (more)

[MidlandsBiz, 21 December]

“Cuts to the higher education budget will leave universities struggling to meet student expectations and on the brink of ’serious decay’, the Government has been warned. University mission groups have criticised the £135 million cut to the Higher Education Funding Council for England budget, announced in the annual grant letter yesterday …” (more)

[John Morgan, Times Higher Education, 23 December]

“A campaign has been launched to save one of Ireland’s best known institutions, the National University of Ireland (NUI). This follows the Bord Snip Nua report, which claimed abolition would save €3m a year …” (more)

[John Walshe, Independent, 23 December]

“Public sector unions will escalate a planned campaign of industrial action in February to try to force the Government to reverse the public sector pay cuts. An internal letter sent by a senior union leader said that details of the campaign would be launched in the first week of January, with an escalation in action the following month …” (more)

[Anne-Marie Walsh, Independent, 23 December]

“Private sector workers saw their pay fall by 3pc in the first six months of the year as public employees saw their earnings rise by 1.3pc, new figures reveal. However, the Central Statistics Office estimated that the actual level of wage cuts for private sector workers could be as much as 4pc to 5pc …” (more)

[Aideen Sheehan, Independent, 23 December]

“Melissa McDonagh is one of a small but growing number of Irish Travellers going to college. The 20-year-old is among 60 Traveller students who have enrolled for third-level education in the past two years, according to official statistics …” (more)

[John Walshe, Independent, 23 December]

“Abstract: The subjective well-being of a sample of 979 international students attending a large metropolitan university in Melbourne, Australia, was investigated. A person-focussed approach was used to determine whether different ways of adapting, based on patterns of well-being, could be discerned. Cluster analysis of responses on 21 measures identified three different patterns: positive and connected (58.8% of students), unconnected and stressed (34.4%), and distressed and risk-taking (6.7%) …” (more)

[Jean Russell and others, Higher Education, 15 December]

“Right now in Britain an argument is raging between different parts of the higher education as to how university research should be funded: should it be concentrated in a small number of leading research universities (and allocated strategically on that basis), or should it be directed to those demonstrating excellence as assessed by peer reviewers, regardless of the status of the institution in which they work? …” (more)

[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 23 December]

“The vast majority of student grants have successfully been paid out in advance of the Christmas break, according to Cllr Charlie McConalogue. However, despite the large number paid there is still students waiting on their payment and this is a situation that has to be addressed so that a similar situation does not arise next year, says the North Inishowen based Deputy Mayor …” (more)

[Derry Journal, 22 December]