Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education and Social Protection
Quality of Teaching in Higher Education: Discussion
3:15 pm
Dr. Jen Harvey:
I think Professor Moore's group has initiated a great deal of work that will be a good foundation for making substantial changes into the future. One example is the digital road for Ireland, which is necessary, and the group is undertaking a review of various projects about technical infrastructures and support for digital literacy. I think that is encouraging. In the context of much of the work that has been under way on transition pieces - work that has been researched in many institutions across Ireland - really useful data are available on the website.
Parity of esteem between teaching and research is something with which we are all wrestling. I am always arguing the case - the perspective of comparing it to the Taliban is interesting - that there is teaching versus research. Perhaps that is an IOTI piece.
The teaching here achieved a learning impact award. I am not a great person in terms of awards. I view them with a degree of cynicism, but if it actually recognises the value of it-----