The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) has warned the government that the “exploitation” of student nurses has been intensified by the pandemic. “Our students are being taken for granted,” INMO General Secretary, Phil Ní Sheaghdha, said. “They are facing huge workloads and risking COVID infection. And while they are doing indispensable work, they are…
Third-level students are to each receive a once-off payment of €250 euro in a government plan to offset the financial impact of the pandemic on young people, the Budget 2021 revealed. The fund of €50 million is to be divided amongst students who are in receipt of SUSI grants or have paid the €3,000 student…
In this issue, the News Section seems fixated on Freshers’ Week in a time of COVID-19—from UCC’s own virtual Freshers’ and accompanying fines, to NUIG students’ viral flouting of health guidelines and how still, some students are left behind in the digital divide. It’s not an accident that so many of our stories this issue…
Images and videos of large crowds of NUIG students gathered for Freshers’ Week acted as a “massive slap in the face” to their peers and the rest of the country, says NUIG Student Welfare Officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn. The footage of gatherings at the Spanish Arch, Shop Street, and Wood Quay in Galway city appeared…
Government advice at the beginning of October asserted that all counties would go to Level-3 of the National Health Plan until October 27th. Since late September, universities across the country have operated under Level-3 conditions – effectively closing UCC with minor exemptions. Under these restrictions, UCC Students’ Union understood their planned Virtual Freshers’ Week of…
There are times where all I have to do is think of a certain object, of a certain location or subject, and they will appear through the ads on my Instagram feed. I can never decide which explanation for this is more unsettling: that my phone is listening to me, or the algorithm knows me…
Since early September, a story of sexual harassment against staff and students at University College Dublin, characterised by the alleged lack of action taken by the university to address complaints, has been unraveling across social and mainstream media. Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, a lecturer in STEM at UCD and considered one of Ireland’s best known…
As third level colleges prepare to resume despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the experience of incoming students is one of learning to live with the virus rather than waiting for life without it. After months of uncertainty surrounding the cancellation of the Leaving Certificate, and it’s replacement with a calculated grading system which delivered the highest…
In the attempt to flatten a growing curve of new coronavirus cases, the government has requested that all higher education institutions will operate under Level 3 of the phased health plan for at least 2 weeks. UCC was set to reopen through a model of blended learning and strict adherence to health guidelines on Monday…
For the last six months, I feel as if my vision has shifted into the gallery view of a Zoom call: each part of my life squared off, sometimes muted. The very last thing I expected in March as I sat in front of my laptop and contorted the cables of my broadband box, was…