The Power of Part Time Higher Education – transforming lives & careers in NI with the OU

PART TIME education is in the Open University’s DNA says its director John D’Arcy. With the highest number of part time students of any higher education institution in NI, and with students spread across 18 constituencies, the DEL committee hosted the OU up in Parliament Buildings last night and learned first hand about the transformative impact it has on its students.

St Mary’s: Accommodation or Integration?

At the heart of the debate on the future of St Mary’s College is a wider one about the future of education in Northern Ireland. How do we want our children to be educated? Do we want a system that prioritises parental choice between different sectors or one that maximises opportunities for children from different backgrounds to learn together? A number of recent developments highlight a lack of unified education planning by the Executive. Last Friday the DUP launched its …

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“the current system is inefficient and we need to examine the case for reform of teacher education provision”

The BBC reports on the latest attempt by the Northern Ireland Employment and Learning Minister, the Alliance Party’s Stephen Farry, to reform the teacher training system here.    It follows the publication of a report on the first stage of the Study of the Teacher Education Infrastructure in Northern Ireland.  From the ministerial press release “The research concluded that Stranmillis and St. Mary’s are the only teacher training establishments in the UK which receive premia additional to their core funding. The cost …

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Reducing the number of departments by one and missing the opportunity to meet manifesto commitments

Peter Robinson told me at the end of March that: I have a well worn copy of the manifesto because I keep it in front of me and I keep looking to see what else we have to do and we have to accomplish. Like many other local party leaders, this week’s settlement on the number of departments and method of selection of the Justice minster won’t require any pencil ticks to be made on the pages of Peter Robinson’s …

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NI Universities show strong religious imbalance in student numbers

The Minister for Employment and Learning, Stephen Farry, was asked yesterday by MLAs Jim Allister and Gregory Campbell how many Protestants attended universities in Northern Ireland. The answer – only one third of students. Firstly let’s be clear – it doesn’t matter when students achieve a university place what religion they are. What I am more interested are the reasons behind the figures. Pupil numbers in terms of Secondary and Grammar schools in Northern Ireland can be found on the …

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Alliance go back to college and work – what did their manifesto say about DEL?

stephen farry alliance

In the end, I never got round to reading the 150 page Alliance manifesto before the election. On Friday night, the five main parties informally ran d’Hondt to select their ministries – and announced the informal selections via the Executive’s twitter account, controversially some suggest – allowing them to spend the weekend making informed choices about suitable ministers from their elected MLAs. With nine ministries selected, Alliance had no option but take the remaining Department for Employment and Learning as …

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Sir Reg won’t be voting for the next UUP leader

UUP banner logo - slightly cropped

Sir Reg Empey is over in New York this week wearing his Minister for Employment and Learning hat. A BBC online news article explains: Sir Reg’s itinerary this week includes a gathering of world leaders and a magazine event honouring the top 50 Irish-Americans working in finance … will visit the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a philanthropic institute set up by the software billionaire … attend a meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, which was formed in 2005 to …

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