Hello and welcome to this week’s Student Hub digest. In this week’s edition we cover Budget 2024 and the implications it will have for third level students. We have articles by Finn McRedmond on the popularity of Taylor Swift. Justine McCarthy and Diarmaid Ferriter write about the Israel-Hamas war. Jennifer O’Connell writes about natural dereliction and the slow sacrifice of the countryside and Donald Clarke writes about two films with Irish connections that are Oscar contenders which are due to be shown at Cork and Belfast film festivals
Free schoolbooks up to Junior Cycle at second level and €1,000 cut to third-level fees in budget: At third level, a key focus of the Department of Further and Higher Education’s €4.1 billion budget is on cushioning education costs.
Stipends for thousands of PhD researchers to rise by €3,000 a year: Move will increase pay to €22,000 a year for doctoral researchers funded by Science Foundation Ireland and Irish Research Council.
PhD stipend increase is ‘step one’, Harris says: A €3,000 increase to the PhD stipend is not the “end of the story” and there will be a further rise to the payment in future, Minister for Higher and Further Education Simon Harris has said.
‘It’s impossible to study this way’: students protest in Dublin to call for housing solution: Hundreds of students marched through Dublin’s city centre on Wednesday afternoon, calling on the Government to utilise part of its “rainy day” fund to tackle chronic shortages in student accommodation and the rising expense of attending third-level education.
The popularity of Taylor Swift and Barbie has nothing to do with feminism and everything to do with girl power: This summer pop behemoth Taylor Swift embarked on her Eras Tour. As it wends its way into a second and third leg next year, it is set to be the highest grossing tour of all time. Meanwhile, women and teenage girls – some men too, I am sure – flocked to cinemas to watch Barbie.
Two wrongs do not make a right, they make a vortex of horror: During the slaughter at the Nahal Oz kibbutz last Saturday, terrified residents hiding from Hamas killers pleaded for help on their WhatsApp group, writes Justine McCarthy.
Only safe prediction is that civilians will suffer most in Israel-Hamas war: Providing historical context for contemporary war is not about justification or side taking. Interpretations of long-standing hatreds do not stay static, but the Israel-Palestine conflict remains constantly and horribly intractable, underlined by the horrific events in Israel and Gaza this past week.
International student numbers in higher education climb to new high: The number of international students attending Irish universities climbed to a record high of more than 35,000 in the last academic year, or almost one in seven students.
Over one-third of higher education teaching staff are considering leaving – survey: More than a third of teaching staff in higher education institutions consider their employment to be precarious with many saying they are not paid out of term and will have to leave the sector to find permanent jobs, according to new research.
Two of this year’s tastiest Oscars contenders at Cork and Belfast film festivals: The venerable Cork International Film Festival – now in its 68th edition – and the newer Belfast Film Festival, which overlap next month, have announced equally strong programmes. November is now confirmed as one of the juiciest months for cineastes at either end of the island.
We are sacrificing Ireland’s countryside to business and agricultural interests: We talk a lot about urban dereliction. We don’t talk nearly enough about natural dereliction, the slow sacrifice of the countryside to powerful agricultural and industrial interests and public apathy.
‘It’s very frustrating. The whole system seems so unfair’: Upgraded students denied access to college places: More than 100 students who secured enough CAO points for their preferred courses are told their programmes are oversubscribed.
