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News: Trinity research suggests that post lockdown transport may change; National Gender Equality Dashboard for HEIs launched
Trinity research suggests that post lockdown transport may change
NEW research suggests a significant proportion of Trinity College Dublin staff and student population that formerly relied on public transport will now choose to walk or cycle to campus when it fully re-opens after lockdown.
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Among the reasons provided for the shift were that public transport options in Dublin’s city centre were inadequate even when operating at capacity preCOVID, and that public health guidelines are not enforced on public transport, raising safety concerns.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 16% of those surveyed walked and 10.4% cycled to Trinity. Once the campus re-opens fully, 27.3% intend to walk and 27.8% intend to cycle.
The research, from over 2,500 responses from staff and students surveyed in June and July 2020, also found that many people still harbour all-too familiar fears around how safe cycling and walking in Dublin is. Some of those people indicated they too would be likely to switch to walking or cycling to Trinity if there were safer options. “Our research shows how travel to our city centre campus may change as restrictions ease. One of the key findings is that as travel returns to the campus that it is likely to be done by more active modes
with some reluctance to use public transport options,” said Professor Brian Caulfield, from Trinity’s School of Engineering.
“Trinity’s campus is one of the most sustainable in the world when it comes to mobility with less than 1% of staff driving to the campus each day."
A NEW National Gender Equality Dashboard for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to measure progress on gender equality across the sector.
Based on published Higher Education Institutional Staff Profiles by Gender from the HEA, this dashboard developed by Maynooth University provides an interactive and comparative visualisation of key staff data and gender profile, from Irish higher education institutions.
The National Gender Equality Dashboard for HEIs, which will be updated annually, offers a valuable baseline (2017-2019), from which progress on gender equality can be visualized and measured across all grades of staff in the Universities, Colleges, and Institutes of Technology.
The HEA National Review of Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions in 2016 highlighted the systemic imbalance in female representation at professorial level in Irish universities (19%).
DCU expert says Irish is no more difficult than any other language
IN the wake of another Seachtain na Gaeilge, teachers and third level students are set to welcome the launch of ‘Foghlaim an Dara Teanga: Modhanna agus Tascanna sa Seomra Ranga’ which is the new book by Assistant Professor Colin Flynn (right) from Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge at DCU. This is the first book written in Irish focused on second language learning theory and practice in more than forty years.
According to Dr Flynn, this book provides a much-needed up-to-date discussion, through the medium of Irish, on many developments in second language learning research and language teaching methodology which have come about over the last few decades.
Dr Flynn recognised the need for a stateof-the art textbook and reference resource written in Irish for those working in language education and applied linguistics and his book highlights the issues around the capacity of individuals to learn languages as well as teaching methodologies to support them.
According to Dr. Flynn: "At a certain level, there’s nothing more difficult about learning Irish than any other language. There are sociolinguistic factors that may impact on the learning process, but they shouldn’t impede classroom practice. We simply need to take account of them. "So this book aims to increase awareness and promote discussion around these issues to help teachers arrive at a combination of methodologies that will help them achieve their goals in the classroom.”
New pregnancy healthy eating app backed by UCD clinical research
RESEARCHERS at UCD have helped the National Maternity Hospital (NMH) build a new healthy eating app for pregnant women.
Hollestic provides up to a 100 recipes for healthy meal and snacks, all scientifically backed, with the aim of aiding women achieve optimum nutrition during and post pregnancy.
Each of the easy-to-use recipes is approved by researchers at the UCD Perinatal Research Centre and NMH dietitians. The app was trialled in an internationally recognised, randomised control study of over 500 pregnant women at the NMH.
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