A fully taxpayer-funded third-level system should be urgently decided on by the Government, thousands of students insisted at a national protest.

The public service pay deal is set for overwhelming acceptance as four more unions yesterday voted to back it.

University College Cork has denied that it is operating a casualisation policy for hiring staff amid claims that a third of teaching staff are not “permanent” employees, according to the Evening Echo.

The casualisation of lecturing jobs at University College Cork and other universities is exploitative of staff and threatens education standards, a union claims.

The urgency of solving the gap in funding of colleges requires more immediate action than awaiting the political consensus sought by Education Minister Richard Bruton, third-level figures have said.

Doctors, gardaí, teachers, and opposition parties have criticised the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil government formation deal for failing to tackle key problems in their areas, and have warned that the plan offers few details on how long-term crises can be tackled.

Market-driven approaches to increasing income with more students and research are being used by colleges, but contributing to lower education standards, academics have claimed.

Staff at University College Cork’s main campus could go on strike in September in support of colleagues at a research centre in a long-running pay equality dispute.

Industrial action over pay parity at a UCC research centre could be extended to the main campus as the row rumbles on with no sign of resolution.

University College Cork has secured a High Court injunction preventing planned pickets at some entrances to the college’s main campus tomorrow by employees of Tyndall National Institute in a dispute over pay.

The High Court will rule today on whether staff at the Tyndall Research Institute at UCC can hold a picket on the college's main campus this week.

The High Court will rule on Monday on University College Cork’s application for an injunction preventing picketing at some entrances to the main campus next week by employees of a research institute.

Students at University College Cork want assurances that library and other services will not be hit by a strike during exams next week.

NUI Galway has suspended the use of a pre-employment health screening questionnaire after it was heavily criticised for querying women about their menstrual cycle.

Attempts to impose wide changes to terms for new and promoted staff at University College Cork have been met with a threat of industrial action by academic staff.

World Teachers’ Day has just passed and to mark the occasion we, the leaders of all the teachers’ and lecturers’ unions in Ireland and Great Britain would like to pose three questions:

Chocolate treats, wellies recycled as plant pots, and computer coding lessons, are among the ‘brainchildren’ of some of the country’s youngest budding innovators.

Third-level lecturers and students have insisted serious funding problems in Ireland’s colleges and universities must be addressed if the system is to cope with future demand.

A one-day strike which could have brought UCC to a halt today has been called off in light of agreement on how to resolve a pay dispute at one of its most prestigious research centres.

Lecture cancellations and library closures could be possible next week as an industrial dispute at one of University College Cork’s and the country’s most prestigious research centres hits the main campus.

Staff at the Tyndall National Institute in Cork are to mount pickets at University College Cork in an escalation of their campaign over a perceived pay inequity between themselves and their counterparts in the university.

Ireland’s reputation for research excellence is under threat from unequal pay and conditions at one of the country’s leading technology research centres, protesting staff claimed yesterday.

The union representing university teachers is to seek legal advice to establish whether legislation imposing pay cuts on public servants is constitutional.

The proposed deal with teacher unions gives some concessions on what they rejected, but it is unclear if they are enough to assuage anger about a range of cuts and extra work required.

The Irish Federation of University Teachers will make a decision today whether or not to enter public sector pay discussions with the LRC over a revised Croke Park deal.

The Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland has become the latest union to recommend its members reject the new Croke Park deal.

Richard Boyd Barrett of the People Before Profit party has said the proposed sale of the Coillte forestry harvesting rights would be "an unspeakable crime against the country".

Ireland’s brightest researchers will have to emigrate because of the lure of higher redundancy if they agree not to work in the public service for another two years, a union claims.

The Labour Court has told TCD to re-employ three staff who were let go last year, because under the Croke Park Agreement there should be no compulsory redundancies in the public service.

Irish University lecturers work longer hours than their European counterparts, according to a report discussed today at the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) conference.

The Labour Court has rejected a claim by researchers at one of Europe’s largest research centres for information technology for pay parity with their colleagues at University College Cork.

The loss of two lecturing jobs at Trinity College has prompted the trade union for academics to suspend support for the Croke Park Agreement.

EDUCATION Minister Ruairi Quinn is under pressure to decide soon on student fees or some other source of funding to meet a looming €500 million gap in third-level budgets after the country’s drop in the latest world university rankings.

UNIVERSITY College Cork has been accused of planning a “monumental waste of taxpayers’ money” by appealing a Labour Court award of increased redundancy to a former employee.

THIRD-LEVEL bosses are set to resist attempts to cut further jobs as figures obtained by the Irish Examiner show that some colleges have already reduced staffing by almost 10% in the last two years.

WHEN Dr Kadar Asmal died recently in Cape Town, South Africa, he left a world that is poorer for his passing but so much morally and socially richer for his living.

THE Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) has criticised the failure of the Minister for Education to appoint the nominated academic staff representative to the Board of the Higher Education Authority.

COLLEGE charges for student services which the Government may increase to around €2,500 are only costing universities between €1,589 and €1,943 a year per head.

Investment in education is critical to pulling Ireland out of recession, the presidents of the country’s four teaching unions warned today.