“Readers of this blog will by now be well familiar with the Irish ‘employment control framework’, the state-imposed mechanism for restricting the capacity of universities to hire and promote staff, even within budget …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 23 March]
“If the Government insists that the civil service micro-manages our colleges, it will destroy third level education …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, Irish Times, 22 March]
“It is now nearly 25 years since I first assumed academic management responsibilities. At the time, after the untimely death of my head of department in Trinity College Dublin, I became Acting Head of TCD’s business school …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 22 March]
“Amidst the international turmoil around higher education funding, one aspect of the situation has started to encroach on public awareness: student (or graduate) debt …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 21 March]
“If anyone wondered whether there really is a lack of sympathy amongst the wider Irish public for academics and their working practices, the piece of what is described as ‘analysis’ by Eamon Delaney in today’s Sunday Independent should dispel that quickly enough …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzysnki, University Blog, 20 March]
“As recent events in Libya unfolded, one story that got a fair amount of air time was the donation to the London School of Economics of money from Saif Gaddafi, son of the Libyan leader. Inevitably of course further investigations by journalists have revealed other donations and grants from the region …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 20 March]
“In recent years, across a number of countries, there have been occasional court cases involving actions brought by students against their universities …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 19 March]
“The degree of misjudgment evident in the ‘employment control framework’ as issued to the Irish universities has now also been revealed in a leaked internal memorandum in the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, published today in the Irish Times …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 18 March]
“Today, Friday March 18, is my last full day in Ireland before I travel to Scotland where, on Monday, I shall be taking up my post as Principal and Vice-Chancellor of the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. I am leaving the Irish higher education system just as it is going through some rather serious convulsions …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 18 March]
“It is probably true to say that the level of dismay and anger occasioned by the new ‘employment control framework’ in Ireland has taken the authorities by surprise …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 16 March]
“For most of my life I have been very aware of my status as an immigrant, though thankfully it has never been an oppressive awareness. Having been born in Germany, my family moved to Ireland when I was seven years old …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 16 March]
“In the context of the discussions over the past day or two on Ireland’s truly crazy ‘employment control framework’, I received an email from someone who described himself as a ‘concerned citizen’ and who suggested that this was not the time for university employees to seek promotion …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 15 March]
“So Ruairí Quinn is the new Minister for Education and Skills. I’m sure he won’t mind my saying that he and I go back a long way, back to when he was Minister for Labour in Garret FitzGerald’s government and I was lecturer in industrial relations in TCD …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, Irish Times, 15 March]
“@BolandJJ I don’t think, in fairness, that #ecf11 was the initiative of the last government – it was officials in the Department of Finance.” (tweet)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, Twitter, 14 March]
“In July 2009, not long after the ‘employment control framework’ was put in place, I interviewed the then Fine Gael education spokesperson, Brian Hayes TD, for this blog …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 14 March]
“For those who may not have been readers of this blog at that time, I interviewed Ruairi Quinn in 2009 to ascertain his views on the priorities for higher education. I reproduce the interview below …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 12 March]
“Should you ever choose to live in Germany, you will sooner or later come across a person on whose business card you will see that they are ‘Dr Dr’ something or other. It is not even that rare a phenomenon …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 11 March]
“Higher education has become a key issue in the developing Scottish election campaign. Or to be more precise, how to fund it has become an issue …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 11 March]
“The new Minister for Education and Skills is Ruairi Quinn. I have known him for some time, and remember debating industrial relations law with him when he was Minister for Labour in the 1980s. I regard him as a good choice for the education portfolio, in which he has both experience and an established interest …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 10 March]
“… Let me focus a little on the university seats. First, it has to be said that it is an utter disgrace and an insult to the Irish electorate that only NUI and TCD graduates get a vote. The people voted in a referendum in 1979 to open up the electorate to graduates of other institutions, and nothing has been done. This is wholly unacceptable …” (more)
[Ferdinand von Prondzynski, University Blog, 9 March]
Ninth Level Ireland 