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RESEARCH MINISTER Seán Sherlock has fought back at claims that Irish universities are losing out in various world ranking tables – arguing that Ireland is still ranked sixth in the world in universities.
University heads have called for a radical overhauling of how colleges are funded – including the potential return of third-level tuition fees – following the slide of Irish universities down the tables in the last few years.
The most authoritative ranking of universities, the Times Higher Education charts, featured Trinity College Dublin in its top 50, and University College Dublin in its top 100, in its list of rankings in 2009.
In the most recent rankings, however, neither college featured in the top 100 – the first time since the rankings were introduced that Trinity had failed to make it into the upper threshold.
Speaking today, however, at an event to mark Science Week, Sherlock said Ireland was still ranked sixth in the world – if the ranking of domestic colleges was taking in the context of the size of each country’s economy.
“When the number of universities in the top 200 is considered against GDP, it shows that Ireland ranks 6th in the world.
“Such a high ranking reflects the Government’s strategy of improving Ireland’s entire academic ecosystem, rather than focusing on a very small number of elite institutions, as is done in some other countries,” he said.
The “exceptional work and research” being carried out at Irish institutions would help Ireland build “”a true knowledge economy, one that will grow from strength to strength”, the Labour Party minister added.
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Fascinates me, not playing the poor me as I am lucky to have kept my company going but…. they took in an average of 87k per week and got 121k in government assistance….. I got a tax bill and may get a 100 euro voucher but I am not sure if that was passed in the budget.
@Sarah Lou: Some businesses who weren’t hit by the pandemic as hard as they expected are now being tapped on the shoulder by Revenue who are looking for some level of repayments from 56% of employees. I don’t know but I’m guessing KK might fall into this bracket.
@Sean: *employers* that should have said
@Sarah Lou: I know nothing of shops etc, but are you employing staff? Are you paying rates or commercial charges etc ? We want all these businesses to survive thats why they got subsidies, and remember a fair bit of it goes straight back into the tax coffers in one form or another..
@Patricia O’Reilly: I am sorry Patricia but are you alluding that this business, selling donuts with an income of 87k per week for the same year they received 121k in government support was more deserving of it than my company that you literally have absolutely no idea even what industry it was in, how it has been affected etc? I mean I dont know where to start with that. It would however have been nice to have been given some financial recognition in the budget even 1% tax back!
@Sean: Glad to hear they are recouping some of the losses, I feel bad for people having to unexpectedly pay it but its great that they didnt make their predicted losses and a lot of the past year came down to honesty, particularly at the beginning it was a free for all.
@Sarah Lou:
And how much of that 87k, each week, goes to workers — who actually do the work — than to the ceo wage.
Low paid workers = more profits hoarded in society by the businessman.
@Dean: as Patricia, it is her who feels it very important they are kept going!
@Dean: you seem to have a problem with business owners making a profit, in your eutopia should the workers also pay an equal share of losses in a lose making business?
@Sarah Lou: heart attack food
And there is poverty????
@Seán Ryan: yes there is. The is obesity also
@Mattress Dick: the Americans contributing to obesity in Ireland, who’d have guessed?
@Alan Peters: lol I think we are doing a great job on that ourselves.. can’t blame America foe having great doughnuts..
wish I lived close by.. yummm
@Mattress Dick: Absolutely Agree, how many covid /cancer deaths can be attributed to obesity and the overload of suger in our Western diet? People need to be aware of it
@Alan Peters: Just like Chinese people are responsible for Covid
That is a sad story. No wonder obesity is a huge problem here (pardon the pun)
@Carm(Orange Vampire): where’s the pun?
@Joey Navinski: duh, I get it now. Sorry.
@Carm(Orange Vampire): true abiut obesity and obviously going to get worse…..
Lol avoided saying grow or expand or inflate , or…
They are all at it these days with their secret recipes – KFC, McDonalds. Please! It’s not that hard to make a donut! It’s just basically flour, eggs, butter, a drop of vanilla. People have been making them for years. Let’s not pretend KK invented them!
@Sean: ah no, you’ve given away their secret, they’re definitely going to go out of business now
@Sean: they put a bit of extra sugar in their icing that’s about as secret as it gets
@Sean: they aren’t even nice, they taste like pure sugar. Irish businesses like Off Beat or the Rolling Donut are much better.
@Alan Peters: well they actually put a lot of extra things in them to alter the taste and texture, etc, like most processed food though if you listed all the ingredients you’d put more people off than you would entice
@Sam Harms: doughnuts in general are pure sugar and they are all yummm
@Sam Harms: I actually agree that they are too sweet and a lot of confectionery and baking in Ireland overdoses on the sugar. Personally I avoid these donuts in the main because of that but also don’t want a weeks worth of calories in one bite. You would have to run for 25 minutes on a treadmill to burn off the calories in one original glazed donut and some of the special varieties have double that.
@Sean: Have you tasted a KK donut? It’s like comparing a bottle of Lidl wine to a 200 year old Bordeaux?
@Sean: you need to add in all those E numbers. That’s the secret ingredient
@Sean: I wouldn’t eat them much either maybe once or twice a year but if I do if go for Offbeat over Krispy Kreme any day. Glazed donuts are disgusting though, Boston creme all the way!
Very sad to see this. How easily people are influenced by fads and hype.
How it is normalised to eat more than one of these in a sitting.
It is foods like this that are contributing to irelands obesity crisis, putting serious pressure on the health system, there should be warnings on this type of food or at least government sponsored information campaigns. If we could get the country to drastically change our eating habits we would go a long way to improving health increasing lifespan and reducing strains on hospitals.
The workers are probably constantly swamped, understaffed, and on minimum wage too.
@Tomo: Probably? They could also be the best best employers? But let’s go with the negative view, might make us feel better…..
Any wonder 90% of us are predicted to be overweight or obese by 2030. KK has a stand in my local Tesco. Any time I’m in there there’s a queue of teens buying boxes of the stuff
All dough there was love there there was dough there to dough.
@Brian Farrell: *two ;)
@Fachtna Roe: too
give me a polish jam doughnut any day of the week over this . they look horrible. never eaten one so maybe they are nice.
@ed w: jam doughnuts have a bit too much going on for me, a bit messy too, prefer a nice simple glazed one, it’s like butter and toast, simple but just something about it makes it the best
Fatties go to KK
And then they’ll tell you sugar isn’t addictive. I’ve kicked alcohol and tobacco to the curb . This stuff is like kryptonite to me. I return to it even though it makes me feel nauseous afterwards. Not rational behaviour.
Fat Ireland!
I do-not believe it
Everyone is gone dough nuts :)
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