Third-level colleges have to investigate charges ranging from cheating in exams to bullying and harassment. A 2015 case in Dundalk has led to a student being expelled, writes Noel Baker

Here's your morning news bulletin.

A Dundalk firm aims to be the global leader when it comes to safeguarding medical devices, writes Trish Dromey

Health Minister Simon Harris says he is disturbed by the “physical failings” of some hospital buildings to protect healthcare staff.

When my four-year-old son Ryan came home from school last week to tell me he wasn’t as fast as two of his classmates, my immediate reaction was, do I need to get him in the back garden with the therabands, maybe some resistance running? Perhaps even a sleigh with some light weights on it?

Poor performances at three colleges mean they have been threatened with €1m worth of penalties.

An Irish team jets off this weekend in the hope of bringing back the first gold medals from Brazil.

Teachers should not be expected to provide further extra work in return for any restoration of pay cuts of recent years, delegates at the Teachers’ Union of Ireland congress told their officials.

Oisín McConville has cited selfish and uncooperative managers as the cause of player burnout, calling for a joint approach from the GAA and GPA to end the demands on inter-county hurlers and footballers.

The European Operations Centre of PayPal is a 10-minute walk from Dundalk Institute of Technology (DkIT) where many of the international students were interested to hear that the company is to recruit another 400 staff.

An Irishman who wants to live on Mars and a doctor who can listen to the brains of unborn babies are among the speakers at a TED talk in UCC.

The central grants system may not be able to cope when it is extended to cover all students in the coming years, claims the head of the institute of technology sector.

Cork-based Akari Software, one of the first companies in Europe to develop curriculum management software for universities, has done its homework properly and is rapidly expanding into overseas markets, writes Trish Dromey.

Three students have launched a High Court challenge against cuts to higher level grants.

PROFESSOR Áine Hyland’s analysis of the school league tables for 2011 reveals that the worry of UCC president, Dr Michael Murphy that there was “extensive anecdotal evidence” that many of the brightest and best Leaving Certificate students are leaving Ireland without returning, is without foundation.

STUDENTS can now build their own model wind turbine thanks to training undertaken by their teachers during the mid-term break.

THE possibility that Newgrange could have a second passage tomb, which may also be aligned with a solstice event, is being explored by a team of Irish and Slovakian archaeologists who are using ground breaking technology.

STUDENTS who can afford grinds and other supports will have an unfair advantage at the Leaving Certificate until changes are made to how school-leavers are assessed, college leaders have said.

“I USED to be on anti-depressants and had panic attacks. I told people I was happy but I wasn’t happy at all,” says 24-year-old Eadaoin Curran.

IRELAND’S graduates of the future have used their fingers to click on computing, software and gaming courses in the hope of not having to vote with their feet and look overseas for work.

STUDENTS welcomed the unveiling of three new agriculture and horticulture courses at Teagasc’s Education Conference in Dublin Castle on Thursday.

SHANE KELLY has graduated from a course at Trinity College Dublin which has changed his life.

IF it’s true that we no longer buy a house for life, but for life stages, then a new development in elderly housing deserves serious attention.

SMALL wind farm projects say they are being forced to go abroad for finance as they are being refused loans by Irish banks who say they can’t access funding due to Irish banking’s poor international image.

An Irish IT firm has announced plans to create up to 25 jobs in Dundalk and Dublin over the next two years.

A STUDY launched yesterday will lift the lid on ageing in persons with an intellectual disability in Ireland for the first time.

Politicians come together today in a new Oireachtas committee set up to help create thousands of green jobs.

PROJECTS to help students with disabilities access and benefit from third-level courses are among dozens of programmes that will benefit from a total of €97 million in government funding announced yesterday.

IF PROOF was ever needed politicians spoil all the fun, it came in a cavalcade to Dundalk Institute of Technology.

Students at Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) will today stage a picket over the introduction of clamping in their campus car park.

THE all-singing, all-dancing, fun loving members of the Abbeyknockmoy, Co Galway and Kilcloon, Co Meath clubs came out on top in the National Talent Competition in the Helix Theatre in Dublin last weekend.

A new cross-border research centre was opened today in Co Louth to help improve the way social and economic disadvantage is tackled north and south.

JOANNA GARDINER has been appointed chairperson of the governing body of Dundalk Institute of Technology (DKIT) for five years.

ONE-IN-FIVE students involved in mini-companies goes on to create their own businesses when they leave school, a new study says.

STUDYING to become a midwife or children’s nurse will take up to two years less from next year on foot of the Government’s decision to introduce new nursing courses.

The vacant third-level course places should be filled by factory workers made redundant in Donegal and Louth, it was claimed today.

THE Government has committed itself to establishing an institute of Chinese studies at an Irish university yet to be determined.

AMBULANCE personnel and child care staff are subjected to particularly high levels of workplace violence, a study has found.

Dundalk Institute of Technology will host next year's Sigerson and Trench Cups.

Minister for Communications Dermot Ahern has launched a project aimed at developing a cluster of digital media companies between Dublin and Belfast.

CONTROVERSIAL columnist John Waters has been appointed to the Board of the Broadcasting Commission of Ireland (BCI).

A 21-year-old Dublin man was today convicted of the manslaughter of a young electronic technician who was randomly stabbed as he stood outside a house in a north Dublin suburb in 2001.