Lack of funding for Higher education in Ireland and the scandalous shortage of staff in the sector have combined to create an explosion in the numbers of part-time and temporary academic staff, the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) will report to a worldwide conference on issues in third-level education this week.
IFUT General Secretary and European Treasurer of Education International, Mike Jennings will be attending and speaking at the conference on the escalating crisis in third level in Ireland.
The 10th International Further and Higher Education and Research Conference, organised by Education International in Accra, Ghana, from 14-16 November, will address changing and challenging conditions facing the higher education and research sectors around the world.
“Despite being very much part of the developed world, education here is facing almost identical issues to the developing world in relation to conditions of employment, opposing precarious work and the privatisation and casualisation of education,” Mike Jennings says.
The conference is the first on further, higher education and research to be organised in Africa. It will focus on academic freedom, privatisation and international solidarity
Education International is the global confederation of 401 national education unions and organisations in 172 countries, representing 32.5 million individual members The Policy Statement for the conference addresses the importance of ensuring the widest and most accessible dissemination of knowledge, which is universally topical but of special importance to the African region.
The Conference will also discuss the monitoring and implementation of the sustainable development goals and related education indicators on higher education and technical vocational education and training.
ENDS
For further information on this media release please contact:
John Gallagher - John Gallagher Consulting - Tel. 087 9369888
Mike Jennings - General Secretary, IFUT - Tel. 087 6776747.
