Student unrest in UCD

Issued : Thursday 2 February, 2006 by UCD

Large-scale student demonstrations were held in UCD on Thursday February 2nd in opposition to academic reforms introduced by President Hugh Brady and the Registrar Philip Nolan. Students were protesting outside the Administration Building and also disrupted a meeting of the University's Academic Council through a noise protest.

The reforms involve the modularisation and semisterisation of the entire university next year; a measure which was initially only planned for introduction on a year-by-year basis starting with 2005's intake of first years. Continuing students, who were last year promised that the drastic changes would not affect them, are now making their discontent clear.

Brady's "lightning" reforms have angered both staff and students, with SIPTU holding a similar protest outside the university gates before Christmas. It is felt by many academics and students that profit and corporate investment has now taken precedence over the educational aspect of the university.

Chants of "Registrar, You Broke Your Word" and "No Implementation Without Consultation" could be heard as the university's top academics gathered for the meeting of Academic Council, a statutory body under the Universities Act.

Speaking outside the meeting, Education Officer of UCD Students' Union Jane Horgan-Jones said, "We have begged and pleaded for students to be properly informed and consulted on the changes, but to no avail. Mass emails are sent by the college with no mention of this, which is crazy considering how important it is for so many people's degrees. Students have been misled, lied to, patronised and ignored, and it's time the administration took us seriously for once and remembered that we are in the majority here."

Students caused maximum disruption to the meeting of Academic Council, which was due to take place at 2:30pm. Foghorns and whistles were blown as students occupied the Astra Hall, where the meeting was to be held. Deputy President of UCD Students' Union, Dave Curran commented that, "All this could have been prevented if the university had agreed to our requests for public meetings and mass emails to students to inform them of potential changes to their degrees. The university administration have nobody to blame but themselves."

Students eventually forced the Registrar, Philip Nolan, to come down from his office in the Admin Block and address the crowd of students.