This paper reports a longitudinal study of levels of moral reasoning in a convenience sample of Irish undergraduate university students, using the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2). The study was timely, as higher education institutions are becoming increasingly interested in the promotion of social capital and the development of the whole person. A…

This paper offers a historical perspective on government policies for the rationalisation of higher education (HE) in Ireland through a critical re-appraisal of the initiative for "merger" of Trinity College and University College Dublin. The initiative launched by Donogh O'Malley in 1967 was the first significant attempt by an…

Most studies of the relationship between education and economic development focus on the line of causation running from the former to the latter. The present paper studies how the pattern of Irish development has influenced the structure of the Irish education system. The first section sets out the economic context of late industrialisation within…

Beginning with a historical review of Irish education policy since the establishment of the Irish Free State in 1922, this paper focuses on the issue of investment in education through the lens of the "Investment in Education" report. Following this historical review, the author explores how the legacy of the past continues to define the…

Thirty years after the publication of "Investment in Education," Patrick Clancy wrote that the report represented "the" foundation document of education' in the era since the introduction of economic planning in the late 1950s. This paper considers the importance of the report in disseminating theories of human capital…

This paper presents the development and initial validation of a feedback scale which measures the thoughts and affective reactions of prospective teachers concerning feedback on their teaching experiences. To reach this goal, data from 512 prospective teachers were used to test the internal consistency, exploratory and confirmative factor…

In recent years, music at Leaving Certificate level has come under increasing focus in media and higher education discourse as an easy option. In particular, scant attention has been paid to the musical knowledge and skills needed in the transition to higher music education within the Irish context. This paper addresses the perceived gap in…

Irish public policy strongly promotes greater flexibility in higher education. This review paper examines Irish policy conceptualisations of flexible learning. The review finds that the promotion of flexible learning is positioned within strongly economistic discourses of lifelong learning, and primarily in human capital terms of meeting the…

Although numerous studies have explored international students' experiences, there is a dearth of research exploring the perspectives of professionals who have contact with international students. The present study addresses this gap in the literature by providing an analysis of higher educational professionals' ("n"=11)…

The importance of education in developing morally sensitive individuals who use principled moral reasoning when facing dilemmas has been widely acknowledged. In the context of the criticism levelled at the Irish higher education system for failing to fulfil the role of intellectual leader and moral critic within the public domain, this paper…

This article addresses the question of why fields of study differ in early labour market returns. It is argued that the higher the potential training costs of a field of study the more problematic the labour market integration of graduates. This is due to the fact that employers use the occupational specificity and selectivity of a study programme…

In this article, we use data from the Canadian Youth in Transition Survey (YITS). This survey has followed longitudinally the Canadian Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) students originally surveyed in 2000. The aim of this article is to look to what extent social factors (e.g. gender, parental education and socio-economic…

There is a growing body of research and scholarship highlighting the importance of teachers and teaching to children's learning and life opportunities (Bransford, Darling-Hammond and LePage 2005). More specifically what teachers do in classrooms is a function of many things (e.g., content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge) including their belief…

Drawing upon data collected as part of a research project exploring diversity in Irish higher education, this article focuses on the relational realm of under-represented students' experiences. It commences with a brief overview of the background and context as well as the methodology of the study. The article then presents and explores a number…

This is the first report on the findings of a survey carried out on 578 students entering computing courses at seven institutes of technology in Ireland in 2001. The progress of this cohort of students is charted through the four years of their course using questionnaires and interviews. It is envisioned that the study will highlight the different…