IRELAND: Universities still have lot to learn, says study

A report just published by an expert group of the Higher Education Authority, or HEA, has cast a cloud over celebrations which greeted news that Trinity College Dublin had for the first time broken into the top 50 of the world's best universities, writes John O'Keeffe in the Independent. The report is damning in its indictment of universities in the Irish Republic, which it said had some leaders who had failed to engage with the Irish Universities Quality Board.

It also noted "sustained systematic shortcomings" where universities had unilaterally suspended quality assurance activities and ignored the IUQB, which is itself accused of, among other things, poor institutional review processes and follow-up procedures with universities.

Trinity has risen four places in a year to break the magic 50 mark in the Times Higher Education- QS World University Rankings. While University College Dublin has failed to make the Top 100 it has jumped 69 places to 108th in the world. No other Irish university appears in the Top 200 QS Rankings.
Full report on the Independent site