I was interested to learn, via 9th Level Ireland, that local TD Bernard Durkan recently tabled a written question in the Dáil Éireann about harassment and bullying in Irish third-level institutions:
To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to indicate the extent to which his Department continues to monitor incidents of professional bullying throughout the higher education system; the extent to which bullying is evident in colleges throughout the country; the action taken or being taken to counter this; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
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The response from the Minister Simon Harris contains the following:
The Deputy will be aware that there are a number of Programme for Government (PfG) commitments aimed at addressing bullying, including a commitment to commission surveys of staff and students in the areas of harassment, sexual harassment, and bullying in higher education.
It also contains this:
The Deputy will also be familiar with the ‘Speak Out’ tool which my Department has funded. Speak Out is an online, anonymous reporting tool for staff, students and visitors to higher education institutions that was developed by the Psychological Counsellors in Higher Education Ireland with financial support from my Department, the Department of Education and the Higher Education Authority.
I must either have missed the news about Speak Out (or forgotten it) but I see that it can be accessed via my own institution, for example, here. Other universities and colleges have their own links. The dialogue page says:
The big problem with taking a bullying complaint further than mere anonymous reporting is that the legal definition of bullying is far less clear than the others. One definition I’ve found is:
Bullying is an ongoing and deliberate misuse of power in relationships through repeated verbal, physical and/or social behaviour that intends to cause physical, social and/or psychological harm.
Even this is problematic because “intent” is difficult to prove. Power relationships in academia are often distorted by the hierarchical management structures, so bullying is not just contained within the academic staff and students but also from senior management and to support staff. For that reason there’s a lot of this about. Reporting is good but I’m not sure what it actually achieves. Universities seem to be keen to hide bullying, conniving with those responsible shield them and avoid institutional harm, just as they do with harassment and other forms of abusive behaviour.
In the Dark 