CAVE News and Events

Recent Projects

European Research Funding Awards for CAVE

CAVE has recently completed an 'Erasmus+' project on Developing All Round Education, in conjunction with five other European partners led by the University of Granada. The partners secured a research grant of €240,000 to explore and develop a framework of competencies informed by the Tuning model in the field of informal learning. CAVE worked closely with CAPSL in hosting a highly successful 'Train the Trainers' Seminar for the project in February 2015. We also partnered with Trinity Students' Union and Graduate Students' Union in developing student-led informal learning opportunities. Dr Aidan Seery, Dr John Walsh and Dr Ciara O'Farrell are the project's Irish representatives. The main conclusions of this project are being published as a book co-edited by Aidan Seery.

CAVE, along with European partner institutions and organisations have been awarded a prestigious 'Erasmus +' research grant of €170,174 to develop a pedagogical framework to support supervision practices on professional doctorate programmes. The project, which is being undertaken over a twenty-four month period, is entitled 'Doctoral supervision of multi-disciplinary practice based doctorates: an appreciative inquiry into best practice in their design, development and delivery'. It is being jointly undertaken by Middlesex University (UK), University of Maastricht (Netherlands), EURODOC (Belgium) and Fondazione ADAPT (Italy). Dr Andrew Loxley is the project's Irish representative.

National Projects

Postdoctoral researchers' lives - A national study is currently in progress to examine the lives and experiences of this important group of higher education workers who find themselves often at the margins of the higher education institutions with which they are associated. A conference paper has been presented on the pilot study at the European Conference of Educational Research in Istanbul and the American Educational Research Association in San Francisco, both in 2013, and a symposium hosted by the Royal Irish Academy in 2014. A seminar exploring comparative experiences of postdoctoral life and work as part of this project was held in Trinity College in April 2016.

Mature Students - This project is led by Dr. Andrew Loxley, in collaboration with Dr Mark Kearns. It explores the intentions and experiences of mature undergraduate students in two higher education institutions.

Events

The Hunt Report in its second decade – a Witness Seminar on the national strategy for higher education to  2030. April 25th 2023 in the Neil Hoey Theatre at 2.30pm.

Seminar | Racism in Higher Education | THURSDAY 21st JUNE 2018 (9:30 – 1:00) at Marino Institute of Education, Dublin, jointly organised by the Cultures and Academic Values Research Centre in the School of Education, TCD and Lochrann, the Centre for Intercultural Education, in Marino Institute of Education.

Launch of a new book Developing Generic Competences Outside the University Classroom, Monday 11th December 2017.

Seminar on 'Postdoctoral Lives in Higher Education' - 20 April 2017

A lunchtime academic seminar and Q and A on the position of postdoctoral researchers in higher education was held in the Neill Hoey Theatre in the Trinity Long Room Hub on 20 April 2017. Talks were given by the following participants:

• Dr Georgeta Ion (Autonomous University of Barcelona): 'Postdoctoral Researchers and the changing research landscape in Spanish universities'

• Prof Aida Idris, Senior Research Fellow and Visiting Researcher with CAVE - 'A personal reflection on the life of an international researchers in Trinity College'

• Dr Aidan Seery, Senior Tutor - 'Postdoctoral Lives – an Irish national case study'

Public Seminar on Higher Education Funding – 5 October 2016

The CAVE Research Centre, in conjunction with the Vice Provost's office, hosted a half day seminar on the financing of higher education on Wednesday 5th October 2016 in the Neill Hoey Theatre, Trinity Long Room Hub. The seminar was introduced by the Vice Provost, Prof Chris Morash and the Director of CAVE, Dr John Walsh. A keynote address was given by Prof Bruce Chapman, Australian National University, on the pros and cons of the Australian system of income contingent loans; the response was given by Mr Ruairi Quinn, former Minister for Education (2011-14).

Among a range of academic and political contributors were Thomas Byrne TD (Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Education), Senator Ivana Bacik (Labour), Senator Lynn Ruane (Independent) and Dr Aedin Doris (NUI Maynooth). Please find the programme here.

Past and Present