In the Dark<p>Along 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:</p><a href="https://telescoper.blog/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/ranking.jpg" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank"></a><p>Well, I certainly won’t be providing <em>any </em>such lists <em>at any time</em> for this or any similar purpose, let alone by next Wednesday! I will be boycotting the <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/qs-world-university-rankings" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">QS World University Rankings</a> and I urge any of my “peers” who are contacted about it to do likewise.</p><p>I assume that request this is a panicky reaction to the fact that Maynooth is <a href="https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/maynooth-university" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">so low in the current current QS league tables</a> 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. ..</p><p>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 <a href="https://wonkhe.com/blogs/rank-hypocrisy-how-universities-betray-their-promises-on-responsible-research-assessment/" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">ridiculous league tables</a>. 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.</p><p><a href="https://telescoper.blog/2024/10/18/steps-to-improve/" class="" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">https://telescoper.blog/2024/10/18/steps-to-improve/</a></p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/education/" target="_blank">#education</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/education-research/" target="_blank">#EducationResearch</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/ireland/" target="_blank">#ireland</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/maynooth/" target="_blank">#Maynooth</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/maynooth-university/" target="_blank">#MaynoothUniversity</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://telescoper.blog/tag/qs-world-university-rankings/" target="_blank">#QSWorldUniversityRankings</a></p>