O’Keeffe: Four hours’ teaching seems very little

SOME academics are spending as little as four hours teaching but must start sharing their expertise with students, Education Minister Batt O’Keeffe has claimed.

Following criticisms about Government funding of the third-level sector by university presidents at an Oireachtas committee on Thursday, he said there is a need for more efficient use of the resources given to colleges.

He told RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland that some contracts only required lecturers to provide four hours of contact time with undergraduates, and was asked to elaborate at the Irish Primary Principals Network conference yesterday what evidence he had. “I was told by two of them, two very high-profile lecturers. I know that in the institutes of technology, it’s 16 hours [of teaching] plus administration. Four hours seems very little, irrespective of the amount of research that an individual is involved in,” Mr O’Keeffe said.