About this blog
This is my blog on Irish Universities. Mainly, it links to news and discussion elsewhere on the web, though I throw in my own 2 cents on occasion. I also occasionally wander off topic, perhaps into whatever foreign academics are up to, perhaps even out of the ivory tower altogether – usually because there’s some relevance for Irish academics, but sometimes just because I feel like it. It’s my blog, after all. It’s been running since August 2008.
If names matter, mine is Steve Hedley. Which categories to put me in: I’m staff, not a student; an academic, not an administrator (unless being a head of department makes me an administrator, in which case I’m both); a professor, not a lecturer; neither Arts nor Science but an academic lawyer (which is a bit like being a real lawyer – but only a bit). Oh, and I’m also English. As for my university, it’s NUI, with serious aspirations to being a world-class regional institution. All of which probably makes me unusual – but not much more unusual than anyone else, I guess. I can be contacted at s.hedley@ucc.ie.
Anyway, enjoy. All comments and suggestions are welcome.
Ninth Level Ireland 
20 February 2009 at 3:17 am
A very helpful blog–it’s interesting to see how the politics of academic life play out in Ireland and other parts of the world as compared to my own limited experience in the U.S.
24 April 2009 at 9:22 am
Nice blog, Steve. Much of the content would resonate in our tea-room. I plan to call by from time-to-time.
Paul McSweeney in Food Science
14 December 2010 at 5:23 pm
Hi Steve,
this is a much needed blog; thanks for keeping us all updated at all times. As you may know (since you have an article published in Forth here by me) I’ve been following the rapid privatization of education in the UK quite closely, and I’d like to suggest that you link to the following article written by Prof. Peter Hallward and published in THE yesterday; as it effects all of us, either as Irish students aspiring to study in the UK specifically, or as the not so privileged few who will benefit from the Neo-liberalization of education, or the diminishing right to protest, more generally.
The article can be found here: http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?
sectioncode=26&storycode=414573&c=2.
Could I also flag the fact that Peter Hallward will be in Dublin on 17 Feb 2011 to present on his ongoing project ‘the Will of the People’; check http://www.gradcam.ie for details.
Best,
Edia Connole
2 February 2011 at 10:02 pm
nice article you thanks very useful