I’m too old to be making memes, but it’s a Bank Holiday so,in the light of recent developments at Maynooth University, I thought I’d give it a go. If this one proves popular there are many more I could post…
Archive for the Education Category
Management Memes
Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags Maynooth University, rankings, University Rankings on October 28, 2024 by telescoperThe Mark Brake Scandal, 15 years on…
Posted in Cardiff, Education with tags Fraud, Mark Brake, PhD, Scandal, University of Glamorgan on October 20, 2024 by telescoperThis blog has been going for over 16 years now. Those readers who have been following it all that time will remember that in October 2009, 15 years ago, I posted an item about Mark Brake, a Professor at the University of Glamorgan who falsely claimed on a funding application that he had a PhD from Cardiff University. I thought for old times’ sake I would post the article again…
P.S. This story was responsible for me being threatened with a libel action. My response was to pass on the name and address of my solicitor with the message “Go ahead. Make my day” (or words to that effect). I never heard back.
P.P.S. The University of Glamorgan no longer exists as such, as in April 2013 it merged with University of Wales, Newport, to form the University of South Wales.
Steps to Improve
Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags education, Education Research, ireland, Maynooth, Maynooth University, QS World University Rankings on October 18, 2024 by telescoperAlong with all academic staff at Maynooth University I received an email this afternoon from the Vice-President for Research and Innovation, which contained the following request:
Well, I certainly won’t be providing any such lists at any time for this or any similar purpose, let alone by next Wednesday! I will be boycotting the QS World University Rankings and I urge any of my “peers” who are contacted about it to do likewise.
I assume that request this is a panicky reaction to the fact that Maynooth is so low in the current current QS league tables and falling in most others. This decline is a direct result of policies implemented by the Management Team at Maynooth, pushing up a student-staff ratio that is already the highest in Ireland, and starving core activities of resources while squandering millions on management salaries and perks – latest example of which is €500,000 on a luxury taxi service for “priority staff members”; you can guess who that means. ..
I would prefer that the people in charge of Maynooth University made some attempt to improve teaching and research – you know, the things that a university is suppose to do – rather than try to game these ridiculous league tables. Such an approach, however, seems to be out of the question. Maynooth’s race to the bottom is bound to continue unless and until attitudes change at the top.
Alarums and Excursions
Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on October 13, 2024 by telescoperLast week was the third week of the semester at Maynooth University and teaching activity has ramped up to its full level: tutorials have begun; assignments handed in, corrected and returned; projects allocated; and so on. With a quarter of the term now over, and two new modules to teach, I’m relieved that apart from a batch of assignments to correct (which I’ll do this afternoon), I haven’t fallen behind schedule.
The addition of our Space Week event made this an extra busy week, as did a few personal matters that have been dragging on for ages and weighing on my mind, but which are now at last resolved; the last stage completed on Friday.
To add to all this I had to interrupt work to make two extra trips from my office and back. On Wednesday I went early to my office on campus planning to write my Space Week talk in the afternoon, after a lunchtime tutorial. Unfortunately when I got there I realized I had left the power supply for my laptop at home. A sensible person would have bought two adapters, one for work and one for home, but I didn’t do that so had to go home to retrieve it. It’s only about a 20-minute walk home from my office but I was annoyed at having to waste 40 minutes there and back, not to mention a bit tired.
In the pub after the evening event, one of our technicians told me that he keeps a collection of spare power supplies in his office, so I needn’t have bothered. Sigh.
The following morning I was in the office again when I got a phone call from one of my neighbours who told me the burglar alarm in my house was ringing. I could hear it over the phone actually. It’s very loud. I had time to get there and back before my lecture so I set off home once again. By the time I got back to the house, the alarm had switched off but when I checked the control panel it explained “REAR WINDOW. GROSS EVENT.” I did wonder what “GROSS” meant in this context, however. Had something particular disgusting happened? Or had 144 people tried to break in?
There was no sign of any break-in and all windows including those at the rear were intact so all was well. I then checked the instructions for the alarm to see what “GROSS” was meant to indicate. It turns out to mean one large thump on the window, as opposed to “PULSE” which refers to a series of short impacts. There was no certainly no sign of anything gross. Although there was no supporting evidence, my best guess is that a bird flew into the window.
Anyway, I reset the alarm and waited for 15 minutes to see if it went off again in case there was a fault and when it didn’t I went back to work. It hasn’t happened again.
Sturm und Liouville
Posted in Biographical, Education, mathematics with tags Liouville, mathematics, Ordinary Differential Equations, Sturm, Sturm Liouville Theory, Sturm und Drang on October 4, 2024 by telescoper
It’s Friday afternoon at the end of Week 2 here at Maynooth so I’ve now completed the 4th lecture of my 4th-year module Differential Equations and Complex Analysis. We’ve now in the section of Sturm-Liouville Theory. I’ve never taught this module before and, as always, teaching a new thing reminds me of all the things I had forgotten since I was a student. In this particular case, I still have the notes I took when I was studying this topic as an undergraduate. It’s scary to think the notes shown above were written by me 40 years ago!
Anyway, as I like to know something about the people behind the names, Sturm-Liouville Theory is named after Jacques Charles François Sturm (1803–1855)* and Joseph Liouville (1809–1882). Contrary to what I’d always assumed, Sturm was not German but was born in Geneva, which is now in Switzerland but which had been annexed by revolutionary France in 1798 so technically speaking he was born in France. Liouville was born in Saint-Omer, near Calais, which to my knowledge has never been part of Switzerland but has been part of the Spanish Netherlands.
*Given the dates, Sturm must have collaborated with Liouville after his earlier work with Drang…
The Return of the Hume Doctoral Scholarships?
Posted in Education, Maynooth with tags John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships, John Hume, Maynooth University, Pat Hume on October 2, 2024 by telescoperThis morning it was drawn to my attention that the TSI Building on Maynooth University campus was surrounded by fences and barricades. A colleague then explained that they were there because the President was delivering her latest Presidential Address in one of the lecture theatres there. I was sadly prevented from attending this inspirational event by having better things to do, but naturally assumed the obstacles were in place to prevent people from leaving before the end. It seems however that campus security were worried there might be “protests”. I’m told that there was a kind of protest, with people displaying placards but it was quite a low-key affair.
So what was the subject of the protest?
You may recall that a few weeks ago, while this blog was still banned from campus, I posted an item bemoaning the sudden decision by University Management to scrap the John and Pat Hume Doctoral Scholarships for PhD students at Maynooth University. Well, this decision created an angry response at Faculty and Departmental meetings across campus, as did the President’s obvious intention to keep any discussion off the agenda as much as possible.
It seems that today the President announced a retreat and the Hume Fellowships will continue this year after all. After exhausting all the alternatives, they have at least decided to do the right thing. At least that’s what I’m told. I wasn’t at the speech and there has been no official communication about it to all staff.
There are many reasons to be glad if this programme continues. On the other hand, reversing the decision does not mean that we should pretend it was never made. Every time the Management does something dumb, and is forced to retreat, more of its credibility is eroded. In due course I plan to post the results of a Staff Culture and Climate Survey that was carried out in 2022. I mentioned this here. These results were obtained recently via a Freedom of Information request as they are so bad – especially concerning the performance of the University Executive – that they were buried for two years. The sad thing is that, two years on, the Culture and Climate at Maynooth have deteriorated still further thanks to episodes like the Hume Scholarship fiasco.
Keeping one’s head above water..
Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth on September 26, 2024 by telescoper
I had two teaching sessions today, on two different modules, both of which I’m teaching for the first time, and also had to prepare the first assignments for both sets of students, so I thought it might be a difficult challenge, metaphorically speaking, to keep my head above water. What I hadn’t expected, however, was that the rain would be bucketing down all day, making it almost literally difficult to keep above water. Now that I’ve done what I planned to do at work I have to make my way home through the deluge. At least I remembered to bring a brolly…
Back to Teaching
Posted in Education, mathematics, Maynooth with tags education, Students, teaching on September 24, 2024 by telescoperSo, after an absence from teaching of over a year, this afternoon I returned to the lecture theatre to give a double session on the module EE206 Differential Equations and Transform Methods. I was a bit apprehensive about having a two-hour slot and it is fair to say that I felt a bit knackered after it, but `then I am getting on a bit. I did have time for a ten-minute break in the middle during which the students could relax and stretch their legs a little. Some of them even came back afterwards.
This module is meant for students on two courses, Electronic Engineering and Robotics and Intelligent Devices, so I will have to think of relevant examples. I’ve got the RLC circuit, of course, but I’ll have to more than that!
If you’re interested you can find an old summary of the module here to see what topics are covered.
The good news from my point of view is that I have a decent room to teach in – complete with chalk boards – and the students seemed pleasant and engaged. I always like to get some interaction going in my classes so it was good to find a reasonable number of people willing to offer answers to questions I asked and indeed willing to ask me questions or request clarification. Overall, I was quite pleased with how it went. You will have to ask the students to see if they agree. At any rate I did manage to get through everything I planned to cover. The class size is about 55, incidentally.
Anyway, today I just warmed up for the module with some revision of basic calculus. I had pessimistically imagined that the students would have forgotten what they did in the first year about this, but in fact quite a few of them remembered quite a lot. I have my second session with this group on Thursday, though that should be a bit easier as it is only one hour instead of two. I will start differential equations proper then.
My remaining teaching sessions this week are all in the Arts Building. I have been quite worried that the rooms I am supposed to use would not be ready in time, but I took a walk around yesterday morning and they are ready (although construction work is going on elsewhere in the block). I was thinking I might have to give these lectures via a remote connection from home as in the old days of the pandemic, but that fortunately is not the case.
Autumnal Equinox 2024
Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth, The Universe and Stuff with tags Autumnal Equinox on September 22, 2024 by telescoperThe Autumnal Equinox (in the Northern hemisphere) takes place this afternoon (Sunday 22nd September 2024) at 13.44 Irish Summer Time (12.44 UT).
Although the term `equinox’ refers to a situation in which day and night are of equal length, which implies that it’s a day rather than a specific time, the astronomical equinox is more accurately defined by a specific event, i.e. when the plane defined by Earth’s equator passes through the centre of the Sun’s disk (or, if you prefer, when the centre of the Sun passes through the plane defined by Earth’s equator). Day and night are not necessarily exactly equal on the equinox, but they’re the closest they get. From now on days in the Northern hemisphere will be shorter than nights and they’ll get shorter still until the Winter Solstice on 21st December 2024 at 9.21am Irish Time.
Many people take the autumnal equinox to be the end of summer. There is a saying around these parts, however, that `Summer is Summer to Michaelmas Day’ (September 29th), which is not until next week. I must say, though, though it doesn’t feel particularly summery this morning although we did have good weather for most of last week. Looking back over my posts on past occurrences of the Autumnal Equinox, it is notable how many talk about a period of good weather around this time of year. The Welsh phrase Haf Bach Mihangel (Michael’s Little Summer) refers to this kind of spell.
I’ve often remarked how the academic year at Maynooth is largely defined by the astronomical phenomena of the equinoxes and solstices. This year demonstrates this perfectly: Semester 1 lectures for undergraduates begin tomorrow (23rd September), the day after the Autumnal equinox; they end on 20th December, the day before the Winter Solstice. The half-term study break coincides with Samhain, a cross-quarter day. It’s all refreshingly pagan.
This time last year I was getting ready to travel to Barcelona. My sabbatical started on 1st September but I didn’t actually leave for Spain until 24th September. That all seems a very long time ago now, and my sabbatical is well and truly over. I resume teaching next week, though my first lectures (a double session of Engineering Mathematics) are not until Tuesday. I hope I can remember how to teach! I’m also doing Differential Equations and Complex Analysis for 4th Year Mathematical Physics students, but the lectures for that are a bit later (Thursday and Friday). I have taught neither of these modules before, so I am a bit apprehensive.
I now know what I’ll be teaching next Semester too. I’m returning to Computational Physics 1, which I taught for 5 years before my sabbatical, so that’s a familiar one. I’m also doing Particle Physics for 4th year students. I taught a full module in that at Nottingham and a half-module in Cardiff so it’s not exactly new but I haven’t lectured in the subject since about 2010. Has anything important happened in that field since then? I assume that had there been, for example, any new boson discovered I would have heard about it…
A New Term
Posted in Biographical, Education, Maynooth with tags Maynooth University on September 8, 2024 by telescoperWARNING: THIS BLOG IS BANNED ON MAYNOOTH UNIVERSITY CAMPUS
I’m well and truly back from sabbatical: I spent most of Friday filling in forms.
It is now just two weeks before teaching resumes after the summer break. To add even more excitement to this, the building housing the rooms in which half of my scheduled lectures (and many of those of my colleagues) are to take place is still a construction site. The work was supposed to be completed by September 1st. Will the rooms be ready by September 23rd? I have no idea. What will we do if they’re not? I have no idea. We’ll just have to wait and see.
I still have the blackboard in my study that I used to give remote lectures during pandemic times. I wonder if I’ll be using it again? I thought this time round we would have a relatively smooth introduction to term, as opposed to the mad scramble caused in previous years by delayed Leaving Certificate results, but…
Among the new arrivals will be a cohort of students on our MSc in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics. I understand we have approximately 9 students which is not a bad start for a new postgraduate course. That means we’ll have to think up some projects for them to do. I might do that this afternoon, in fact.
Anyway, this coming week we have the first Departmental Meeting of the (new) Department of Physics. Hopefully we might find out how the merger is actually meant to work in practice. The day after that we meet the new (Interim) Dean of the Faculty of Science & Engineering. Incidentally the President of Maynooth University made this appointment in a way that is in direct conflict with the Statutes of the University. That’s par for the course at Maynooth these days, I’m afraid, as is the censorship of this blog.
This time next week we’ll be looking ahead to Welcome Week when the new students arrive and have a chance to look around and choose their modules. The local Facebook page is alive with messages from desperate students and their parents looking for accommodation in or near Maynooth. The University likes to boast about how many more students it will have this year, but not a thought is given to where they will live. The strain of having to travel long distances to campus, combined with the high cost of living necessitating many students to take on more-or-less full time employment, looks likely to ensure that drop-out rates climb still further.
In the Dark 