September 2002

Release date: 13 September, 2002 NUI Galway named 'Sunday Times' Irish University of the Year The Sunday Times University Guide has named NUI Galway as Irish University of the Year 2002. This is the newspaper s inaugural award in Ireland and recognises excellence in Irish third level education. NUI Galway, came out on top over twenty-one other universities and institutes of technology in the Republic, following analysis of a range of criteria including grades, retention, research, student services, access for students who are socio-economically disadvantaged, and contribution to development at local and national levels. NUI Galway did exceptionally well in all of these areas. The Sunday Times identified NUI Galway as having the best graduate and post-graduate employment record of all the universities. It has the lowest dropout rate in Ireland, while almost half of its graduates get a first or 2:1 degree. Excellence in research has resulted in a consolidation of world-class expertise in areas such as biomedical engineering science, marine science and environmental science. According to the Sunday Times, NUI Galway's access programme is one of the most extensive of any third-level institution in Ireland. Dr. Iognáid Ó Muircheartaigh, President of NUI Galway said: "As a university we are delighted and proud that the Sunday Times has recognised the hard work and outstanding achievements of our students and staff. NUI Galway has a long and distinguished record of scholarship and research. This designation of NUI Galway as University of the Year is an accolade which we welcome and an acknowledgement, based on clearly enunciated criteria, of the quality of education provided by NUI Galway." For more information please visit: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3501-412629,00.html or Click here to see press clipping 1 Click here to see press clipping 2 Ends Information from: Máire Mhic Uidhir, Press Officer, NUI, Galway. Tel. 091 750418

Release date: 23 September, 2002 NEW PROGRAMME TARGETS NEXT GENERATION OF MANAGERS First on-line Masters programme in Technology Management launched. To meet the challenges facing Irish industry in increasingly competitive global markets, a new postgraduate programme has been designed specifically to equip managers with the expertise to develop the innovative capacity of their organisations. The first on-line programme of its kind, the M.Sc. in Technology Management is also the first collaborative university postgraduate degree in Ireland. Funded by Enterprise Ireland, through the National Development Plan, the two-year, part-time programme is under the auspices of the Atlantic University Alliance (AUA), which includes NUI, Galway, the University of Limerick and University College Cork. The M.Sc. in Technology Management will be launched in the Aula Maxima, NUI Galway on Friday 27th September, at 2.30 p.m. The programme is directed to professionals and managers in all businesses, but particularly those in new businesses and those expanding or introducing new technology or developing new product and processes. "This programme which is designed to enable participating companies to gain competitive advantage through technology innovation and R&D, lays the foundation for economic recovery which will be based on high value added products and processes so that the structural changes within the Irish economy can be consolidated and developed in the future", says Professor Roy Green, NUI, Galway, Academic Director of the programme. The programme is designed and developed in a distance-education format, allowing participants to access it remotely, by conventional means and via the Internet. Access is therefore greatly improved and the interruption to a participant's work and the corporate workplace will be minimised. "Research has shown that a course offered entirely on-line is not the most effective learning tool", says Professor Eamonn Murphy, University of Limerick, Associate Academic Director of the programme. " We therefore intend to use a blended model of on-line material together with class contact at regular intervals". Dr. Barry O'Connor, University College Cork, Associate Academic Director of the programme supports this innovative mode of course delivery stating that "the programme provides students with an opportunity to apply course content in a practical context through work-based assignments and an in-company research project. Indigenous companies and SME innovative applications will be of special focus in the programme." The M.Sc. in Technology Management will bring together lecture material on strategy, policy (both national and international), recognised methodologies, skills and processes which will enable the participants and their companies to make fully-informed decisions relating to all aspects of technology innovation. Students on this exciting programme will have full access to the expertise, libraries and research facilities of the three Universities collaborating in this unique venture. Graduates of the programme will be in a position to guide their companies to exploit technology effectively in the short, medium and long term. The Atlantic University Alliance was established in 1999 with the objective of making the collective expertise and resources of NUI, Galway, University College Cork and the University of Limerick available to industry. The formation of the AUA demonstrates the commitment of the three participating universities to playing a full and dynamic role in the development of the Irish economy, especially along the Atlantic seaboard. Ends Information: Máire Mhic Uidhir, Press and Information Officer, NUI, Galway. Tel: 091 750418

Release date: Tuesday, 17 September, 2002 Racial Awareness and Ethnicity Meeting at NUI Galway Ethnic diversity and racial tolerance, at a time when such issues are prevalent in the national consciousness, will be the subject of a meeting at NUI Galway organised by CLIOH (Creating Links and Innovative Overviews to enhance Historical Perspective in European Culture). The meeting, which takes place on Saturday 21st September, is the national meeting of CLIOH, a European wide network aimed at bringing the study of history and a critically formed historical perspective to bear on the challenges facing European society and education today. Entitled 'Racial Discrimination and Ethnicity', the meeting is being organised by Professor Steven Ellis of the Centre for the Study of Human Settlement and Historical Change at NUI, Galway and will feature talks by historians from throughout Europe including experts from Iceland, Austria, Italy and the UK. Topics under discussion include 'Language, Ethnicity and Nationalism in Europe', 'Discrimination in late Medieval Ireland' the 'The Lost Ethnical Variety: Poland during and after World War II' and 'The integration of the Russian-speaking minority in Estonia'. CLIOH is a large-scale EU project, involving 55 universities, aimed at developing innovative methods in the way history is taught and studied in Europe at all levels. The network, with the support of the Socrates and the Culture 2000 programmes of the European Union, aims at highlighting the role teaching of history plays in forging attitudes. Ends Information: Máire Mhic Uidhir, Press and Information Officer. Tel: 091 750418

Release date: 2 September, 2002 REPRESSION AND DESIRE: THE SEXUAL POLITICS OF ISLAM The Women's Studies Centre at NUI, Galway will hold its Annual Lecture at 8.00.p.m., on Thursday, 12 September 2002, in the Ó Tnúthail Theatre, Arts Millennium Building, NUI, Galway. Guest speaker will be Lara Marlowe, Irish Times correspondent, who will recount her experiences working in an often sexist Islamic world, and assess the causes of the subjugation of Muslim women. The lecture is open to the public and all are welcome to attend. In Nigeria last March, Islamic Law was used to justify a death sentence for adultery against an illiterate woman who bore her ex-husband s daughter. Safiya Husseini was pardoned after an international outcry. There was never any question of punishing the ex-husband.. For Saudi women, a recent report by Amnesty International notes that torture is "a nightmare haunting them everywhere, including in the sanctity of the home where it takes place at the hands of their husbands or in the case of foreign domestic workers, their employers". For much of the past two decades, Irish Times correspondent Lara Marlowe has worked as a journalist in Muslim countries. In Afghanistan last year, she saw a woman squat on the ground and cringe when spoken to. Afghan men refused to divulge the first names of women, which can be known only by close male relatives. In Saudi Arabia too, Marlowe met women reduced to the status of chattel by their male owners . In Algeria, where the ten year-old civil war continues, women have been raped by security forces and kidnapped by Islamist rebels who claim Allah gives them the right to enslave women. Is Islam inherently sexist? Or are abuses like those mentioned above the result of tribalism, ignorance and despotism? Some theologians claim the advent of Shari a actually improved the fate of women, and that Islam advocates equality of the sexes. To what extent is this true, and why is it so often distorted in practice? "Almighty God created sexual desire in ten parts," Mohamed s son-in-law Ali ibn Taleb, the first Shi ite leader, wrote. "Then he gave nine parts to women and one to men." Muslim theologians advocate the segregation of men and women because they believe desire is a force so powerful that the faithful must be protected from it. The veiling of women is the most obvious manifestation of this distrust of female sexuality. Muslim women often accuse westerners of being obsessed with the hijab, or Islamic dress code. But has the West imposed another kind of dictatorship on women, one of perfect figures and eternal youth - as the Moroccan Muslim feminist Fatima Mernissi insists? "What good are Western women s diplomas and intelligence, if physical beauty is considered the supreme value for her sex?" Mernissi asks. Ends Information from: Máire Mhic Uidhir, Press Officer, NUI, Galway. Tel. 091 750418