The Presidents and General Secretaries of the four teacher unions (ASTI, IFUT, INTO and TUI) met today (8 September 2009) to prepare a strategy against further attacks on the education system in the coming months.
All four unions are gravely concerned that cutbacks already in place are having a detrimental effect on the education system. Staffing [...]
IFUT has released an important policy document on the Government’s employment policy for Higher Education
The main points of the IFUT policy are:
The Government’s Employment Policy for the Higher Education Sector is Illegal
The Government’s Policy is Politically Stupid
The Government’s Policy is Contradictory and Unworkable
The Minister’s Policy Will Lead to Higher Drop-out Rates
The Minister’s Policy is Anti-Democratic
IFUT [...]
In a letter to the editor of The Irish Times and published on 4 September 2009, IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, writes:
“We impose financial charges (for example for refuse collection, water supply, etc) as an instrument to discourage usage. Yet we are expected to suspend our disbelief when the Minister for Education says that re-imposing [...]
IFUT has expressed some concern that any abolition of allowances paid to academic staff in Irish Universities would not apply to those allowances which staff are paid for performing extra duties.
IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said that IFUT wanted complete transparency in the payment of allowances and was critical of those allowances which were not [...]
The General Secretary of IFUT, Mike Jennings, has called on university managements to work with IFUT and other employee representative bodies in the sector to present a strong and comprehensive response and resistance to the cuts proposed in last week’s McCarthy/An Bord Snip Nua Report.
“In view of the crisis now facing our sector, I am [...]
The HEA has published the Employment Control Framework for the Higher Education Sector.
This Framework was promised in the letter of 1 April from the HEA to the President/Provost of each of the seven Universities. This letter was sent in response to a letter from the Department of Finance to the Department of Education and Science [...]
IFUT has written a briefing on the recently-published legislation on university pension funds. It has been sent to various members of the Oireachtas. The briefing is available here (Members only).
The legislation facilitating the transfer of the pension funds of the TCD, UCD, UCC, NUIG and NUIM pension schemes and the NUI General Scheme to the National Pension Reserve Fund (NPRF) was published on Friday last, 12 June. The legislation is part of the Financial Measures (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill, 2009 (Number 37 of 2009) and [...]
The Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) welcomes the efforts by Fine Gael to find a means of dealing with the chronic underfunding of our higher education system without doing the serious damage to participation rates which the reintroduction of undergraduate fees would inevitably cause.
“Whilst Fine Gael’s proposals would require some further discussion and fine [...]
IFUT General Secretary, Mike Jennings, said any rationalisation of higher education would only work if it emerged from a sincere and constructive engagement with all of the stakeholders, particularly the university staff who are represented by IFUT.
“Rationalisation could be a good thing if it were genuinely aimed at bringing about improvements in the education system. [...]