Irish Higher Education Research Articles

Education and Religious Identity in Early Modern Ireland

This article explores the role of education in the Reformation and Counter-Reformation in early modern Ireland. Set within the framework of ecclesiastical change, Tudor and Stuart attempts to promote educational reform at all levels were also an integral part of the programme of socio-political engineering designed to bring about the anglicisation of the island. Yet for much of the sixteenth century, activists of both the Protestant and Catholic faiths shared a common background of Christian humanist ideas and exhibited similar strategies for the attainment of religious objectives, including the training of priests. Chronic weaknesses in the state's administrative machinery, however, coupled with the lack of material resources in the localities militated against efforts to build on private and municipal initiatives for providing schools and catechesis. And differences in the ideological approaches of protagonists of reform did eventually obtrude upon a fairly ecumenical climate for educational innovation in the Elizabethan period. The struggle to found a native university which challenged prominent scholars and churchmen in the later sixteenth century encapsulates the theological and practical difficulties which beset educational advances in Tudor Ireland. Attention will focus on the corps of educators who may have proved to be extremely influential in the exodus of scholars to continental Catholic colleges. Ultimately Irish higher education polarised about the divines and printing presses of Trinity College, Dublin, culturally an English, Protestant bastion, established to foster evangelisation in the Anglican church, and the overseas Irish Catholic seminaries such as Louvain whence were disseminated works of catechesis, as well as history and hagiraphy, for the Counter-Reformation. The forging of religious identity in close association with either colonialism or nationalism took place in the context of experiences of opposing educational programmes.

Social and Cultural Determinants of the Gender Gap in Higher Education in the Islamic World

In an analysis of gender stratification in higher education in Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, cultural factors (particularly religion) were found to be much better predictors than structural factors. Realignments of state-class relations were unrelated to the size of the higher education gender gap, which is maximized by the institutionalization of Islamic religious codes. A woman who had received an invitation to attend one of the discussion sessions organized by the Women's Solidarity Association contacted me. She is a university teacher who wanted to participate in the session. Her husband, however, had refused, forbidding her to leave the house. This is a man who believes that work outside the home is not only a women's right, but indeed her duty, in order to elevate the financial and social level of her family. He sees no justification, however, for a woman to leave her home for any other purpose. His wife had explained to him the importance of her attendance at this meeting. ... He was not convinced, and told her that women have no problems-for after all, they have acquired education and gained employment as professors, government ministers, doctors and engineers. So then, what can their problems be? (El Saadawi, 1988: 8).

Social and Cultural Determinants of the Gender Gap in Higher Education in the Islamic World

In an analysis of gender stratification in higher education in Iran, Pakistan and Turkey, cultural factors (particularly religion) were found to be much better predictors than structural factors. Realignments of state-class relations were unrelated to the size of the higher education gender gap, which is maximized by the institutionalization of Islamic religious codes. A woman who had received an invitation to attend one of the discussion sessions organized by the Women's Solidarity Association contacted me. She is a university teacher who wanted to participate in the session. Her husband, however, had refused, forbidding her to leave the house. This is a man who believes that work outside the home is not only a women's right, but indeed her duty, in order to elevate the financial and social level of her family. He sees no justification, however, for a woman to leave her home for any other purpose. His wife had explained to him the importance of her attendance at this meeting. ... He was not convinced, and told her that women have no problems-for after all, they have acquired education and gained employment as professors, government ministers, doctors and engineers. So then, what can their problems be? (El Saadawi, 1988: 8).

Numerical Expansion and Contracting Autonomy in Irish Higher Education

Numerical Expansion and Contracting Autonomy in Irish Higher Education

New Directions and some Responses in Irish Higher Education Policy

New Directions and some Responses in Irish Higher Education Policy

Policy and Structural Developments in Irish Higher Education

The transformation which Irish higher education experienced in the last two decades involved a major quantitative expansion combined with diversification and major structural modifications; the fiscal implications of the increased participation and the centralisation of power implicit in the new structures have increased considerably, though indirectly, government control of an education sector which historically had enjoyed significant autonomy. When, in the early 1980s, government policy revealed an evident preference for investment in the technological sector, there have been sustained impressions of concern on behalf of the traditional universities.

Media and Innovation Spark a Revolution in Higher Education in Iran

Educators in Iran are attempting an educational revolution through the use of media to bridge the gap between needs for higher education graduates and a woefully short supply of them. A massive growth of the economy has fueled a continuing crisis in providing adequately trained professionals for the nation. One answer has been the creation of the Free University of Iran. Local Centers equipped with instrumentation will form a network modeled after the Open University in England and Mid-America University in the United States.

Libraries in higher education in Iran: Their development and proposals for the next five years

The history of Iran (earlier called Persia) goes as far back as 2500 years when in 550 B.C., the Achaemenian King Cyrus, the Great (reign 55929 B.C.) captured the Median capital at Ecbatana and established one of the world’s great empires. During this long history the culture of Iran always attached much value to education and learning and the significant contributions to human knowledge made by her poets, religious leaders, philosophers, mathematicians, medical experts and other scientists are well recognized all over the world. Poets such as FerdowBi, Hafez and SaPdi; Muhammad b. Mfisa 81-KhwPrizimi, the mathematician; Omar Khyyam, the poet and astronomer; Rhazes and Avicenna, the medical scientists; Al-GhazHli, the Islamic theologian; Biruni, the scientist, philosopher and historian, and several other famous scholars have left a rich legacy upon which scholars are still drawing. In religion, Persia was the cradle of Zoroastrianism in about the sixth century B.C. Because of her geographical position she has been for centuries a world cross-road not only for exchange of various goods but also for historical, cultural and scientific exchanges.

Higher education and development in Iran

Recent developments in higher education in Iran are examined against a background of social reform and industrialisation.