Archive for Whit Monday

The Week(s) Ahead

Posted in Barcelona, Biographical, Euclid, Maynooth with tags , , , , on May 20, 2024 by telescoper

Today is a public holiday in Spain, as it is in much of Europe (including France, Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark). The occasion for the day off is Pentecost (or Whitsuntide as it is known in the UK) which, if I understand correctly, is when the Holy Spirit went down on the Apostles. Actually Pentecost (Whit Sunday) was yesterday, exactly 7 weeks after Easter Sunday, which was quite early this year which is why Pentecost Monday (20th May) is earlier than the fixed Bank Holidays used to mark it in the UK (the last Monday in May, 27th, next Monday) and Ireland (the first Monday of June, 3rd, in two weeks’ time). Could I perhaps take all three off?

Today’s holiday notwithstanding, this is going to be a busy week. On Wednesday and Thursday there is to be an event at the European Space Agency coincident with which, on Thursday 23rd May, there will be a significant press event relating to Euclid. I’m not at liberty to say any more at this point, as everything is strictly embargoed until 12 noon CEST on that day, but I have been writing a piece for RTÉ Brainstorm to come out as soon as the embargo is lifted. Hopefully the Communications team at Maynooth University will get involved in the press activity. Watch this space.

Remarkably for me, I filed the RTÉ Brainstorm piece ahead of the deadline but it’s no time to rest on my laurels because I have another paper to finish this week by a different deadline.

And next week will be busy too. I have to make a short trip to not-Barcelona to do a PhD examination in Newcastle upon Tyne and give a lecture in Oxford, where (so I’m told) there is a University of some sort. Then I have to pass through Maynooth to vote in the Local and European Elections before returning to Barcelona. Having another two Whit Monday holidays is looking like a good plan…

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On Whit The Marking Boycott

Posted in Biographical, Education with tags , , , , on May 28, 2023 by telescoper

This is a bank holiday weekend in the United Kingdom, but not here in Ireland. Over here the old Whit Monday bank holiday is marked on the first Monday in June (i.e. a week tomorrow) rather than the last Monday in May as it is in the UK. Whit Sunday is another name for Pentecost, a moveable feast, which occurs on the 7th Sunday after Easter Sunday and therefore moves around in the calendar. Last year, Whit Sunday was actually June 5th; this year it is May 28th (today); and next year it will be on 19th May. So sometimes Ireland has a holiday on Whit Monday, sometimes the UK does, and sometimes neither.

Anyway, tomorrow may not be a holiday here on the Emerald Isle but I’ve finished marking my examinations so one major source of stress has been removed and I can get on with other things next week. Best wishes to colleagues still ploughing through their scripts.

All of this reminded me that universities on the other side of the Irish Sea are currently gripped by a marking and assessment boycott called by the University and College Union (UCU) as part of ongoing industrial action over pay and conditions. This has already been going on for over a month.

I haven’t kept up very well with what’s been going on in UK universities but it looks like a deal has been struck over pensions which will result in benefits being restored to members of the USS scheme. Drastic and unjustifiable cuts imposed on the pension scheme were just one part of the UCU industrial dispute, however, and action continues with respect to the others. Accordingly, UCU has asked its members in higher education institutions which are part of the pay and working conditions dispute to cease undertaking all summative marking and associated assessment activities/duties. The boycott also covers assessment-related work such as exam invigilation and the processing of marks. 

The managers of some universities have reacted to this boycott with 100% salary cuts to staff participating in it. The gloves seem to be off and it doesn’t seem likely that a resolution will be reached any time soon. I support the industrial action, by the way, as I hope do colleagues in Ireland who are employed as External Examiners in UK universities and who should to carry out their duties which would be tantamount to crossing a picket line.

It remains to be seen what will happen to students who hope to graduate from UK universities this summer, especially those who need a specific grade to take their next step. These students have had a difficult time with both the pandemic and the industrial action, but something must be done to arrest the downward spiral of pay and working conditions for university teachers, otherwise there will no long be a higher education system worthy of the name.

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