They Don\u27t Really Want to Know Us: Experiences and Perceptions of international Students at the Technological University Dublin

This paper seeks to explore the experiences and perceptions of international, non-EU students at the Technological University Dublin. My interest in the subject derives from my work as a lecturer at a college with an increasing number of international students and from my participation as a student on a course which made me appreciate the value of a diverse student and lecturer body. The sample of the survey I carried out included international students and lecturers at one campus of the Technological University Dublin. While the results indicated that international students are just as heterogeneous as Irish students, they are faced with specific problems deriving from difficulty with language, differences in academic culture and segregation from the Irish students. They are also subjected to discrimination and racism, which is often not expressed explicitly and therefore hard to challenge. Because of falling numbers of Irish students, institutions of higher education have increasingly become dependent on the recruitment of international students, but do not appreciate the educational benefits of a diverse student population. The revenue generated by the international students does not correspond to an adequate infrastructure of support and services. The lack of acknowledgement by the institution corresponds with the failure to recognise the international students as an integral part of life on campus. As a consequence the international students expressed the feeling of being ignored and neglected. As Irish students were not part of the survey their attitude could be deducted only from how the international students perceived them. The fact that the majority of lecturers regarded international students as an asset gives an indication of the hidden potential of diversity. The detailed suggestions of both students and lecturers could help to improve the situation and to create the conditions for an intercultural campus. In addition, the institution needs to develop policy guidelines and codes of practice for the development of awareness of diversity issues and recognition of the value of a diverse student population

Another Drop in the Ocean: Dispatches from the Ground

In Part One, I give some background of the situation of refugees coming to Europe, especially to Greece. I give a brief outline of the EU policy of Fortress Europe and externalisation of borders. The contribution of Ireland is also discussed. In Part Two, I discuss the challenges and joys of my work in the small refugee camp Pikpa on Lesbos, run by Lesvos Solidarity where I worked for four months in 2017/2018. Other projects, such as the Mosaik Centre are also described. In view of the overall refugee population in the world of 68 million, my contribution seems just a drop in the ocean. The independent camp where I worked has around 120 residents while elsewhere on the island in the notorious “hot spot” camp Moria, 8,000 refugees are confined in a cramped space. Greece has to manage about 60,000 refugees. Still Europe’s numbers of refugees with about 0.5 % of the total population of 508 million taken in are small compared to refugees fleeing to countries neighbouring conflict and war zones

Exploring trend inflation dynamics in euro area countries

Este trabajo analiza los procesos de inflación de 12 países del área del euro para el período I TR 1984-IV TR 2017. Los hechos estilizados muestran que la inflación tiene una naturaleza cambiante y heterogénea entre países, en términos de media, volatilidad y persistencia. Tras estimar un abanico de modelos de componentes inobservados para la inflación, se aísla la tendencia de cada país y se permite la variación en el tiempo tanto de la persistencia de la brecha de inflación como de las volatilidades de la tendencia y del componente transitorio. En promedio, una proporción significativa de la dinámica de la inflación se explica por movimientos en su tendencia. A continuación, utilizando un análisis de panel, se encuentra que las expectativas de inflación a corto plazo, la brecha de producción y determinados factores de economía abierta desempeñan un papel significativo para explicar la dinámica de la inflación tendencial. No obstante, los efectos acumulados de estas variables son reducidos, a excepción de aquellos episodios en los que el cambio es sostenido en el tiempo. A la luz de este resultado, la autoridad monetaria podría considerar una respuesta ante perturbaciones que, con mayor probabilidad, se trasladen a la tendencia de la inflación, de cara a asegurar que las expectativas de inflación a largo plazo permanezcan ancladasThis paper analyzes the inflation processes of twelve Euro Area countries over the period 1984:q1-2017:q4. The stylized features of inflation uncover its changing nature and cross-country heterogeneity, in terms of mean, volatility and persistence. After estimation of a wide array of unobserved components models, we isolate trend inflation rates in a framework that allows for time-varying inflation gap persistence and stochastic volatility in both the trend and transitory components. On average, a sizeable share of overall inflation dynamics is accounted for by movements in the trend. In explaining trend dynamics, we consistently find a signficant role for short-term inflation expectations, economic slack, and openness variables. However, the cumulated impacts of these are fairly small, except in certain, sustained episodes. This is of policy relevance since the monetary authority might want to respond to shocks that are prone to affect the inflation trend in order to ensure that long-term inflation expectations remain anchore

"Willingness to pay for security" bei Passagierkontrollen am Flughafen: zu den individuellen Kosten öffentlicher Sicherheit

"In dem Beitrag geht es um die Erklärung der Bereitschaft der Bürger, Kosten in Form von zusätzlicher Wartezeit am Flughafen in Kauf zu nehmen, um durch eine intensivere Kontrolle aller Flugpassagiere die Sicherheit zu erhöhen. Es werden eine Reihe von Hypothesen an den Daten einer repräsentativen telefonischen Bevölkerungsbefragung (N = 2176) überprüft. Dabei zeigt sich, dass die Angst vor terroristischen Anschlägen, soziale, ökonomische und existenzielle Ängste, Punitivität und Nutzenerwartungen im Hinblick auf neue staatliche Kontroll- und Überwachungsmaßnahmen die Bereitschaft, zusätzliche Wartezeiten bei der Kontrolle in Kauf zu nehmen, fördern. Die Präferenz für ein 'Social Sorting' von Flugpassagieren im Sinne einer selektiven Passagierkontrolle nach bestimmten 'verdächtigen' Kriterien (Nationalität, äußeres Erscheinungsbild) vermindert dagegen diese Bereitschaft." (Autorenreferat)"This article is a theory-driven multivariate statistical analysis of the willingness to pay for an increase of security in terms of additional waiting time at airports thereby imposing (additional) time-costs on airline passengers. A multivariate regression mode) is tested with data from a large German telephone survey (N = 2176). The results of the analysis indicate that fear of terrorism as well as economic and existential fears, punitive attitudes, and expected benefits attributed to new surveillance measures are predictors of the willingness to pay for security as they have positive effects on the dependent variable. On the other hand social sorting in terms of targeting of passengers for security screening based on 'suspicious' characteristics like nationality and appearance has a negative effect on the willingness to pay for security in terms of additional waiting time at airports." (author's abstract

Rapid Evaluation of the Special Measures for Quality and Challenged Provider Regimes: A Mixed-Methods Study

Background: Healthcare organisations in England rated as inadequate for leadership and one other domain enter Special Measures for Quality (SMQ) to receive support and oversight. A ‘watch list’ of challenged providers (CPs) at risk of entering SMQ also receive support. Knowledge is limited about whether the support interventions drive improvements in quality, their costs, and whether they strike the right balance between support and scrutiny. Objective: Analyse trust responses to the implementation of a) interventions for SMQ trusts and b) interventions for CP trusts to determine their impact on these organisations' capacity to achieve and sustain quality improvements. Design: Rapid research comprising five inter-related workstreams: 1. Literature review using systematic methods. 2. Analysis of policy documents and interviews at national level. 3. Eight multi-site, mixed method trust case studies. 4. Analysis of national performance and workforce indicators. 5. Economic analysis. Results: SMQ/CP were intended to be “support” programmes. SMQ/CP had an emotional impact on staff. Perceptions of NHSI interventions were mixed overall. Senior leadership teams were a key driver of change, with strong clinical input vital. Local systems have a role in improvement. Trusts focus efforts to improve across multiple domains. Internal and external factors contribute to positive performance trajectories. Nationally, only 15.8% of SMQ trusts exited within 24 months. Relative to national trends, entry into SMQ/CP corresponded to positive changes in 4-hour waits in Emergency Departments, mortality and delayed transfers of care. Trends in staff sickness and absence improved after trusts left SMQ/CP. There was some evidence that staff survey results improve. No association was found between SMQ/CP and referral to treatment times or cancer waiting times. The largest components of NHSI spending in case studies were interventions directed at 'training on cultural change' (33.6%), 'workforce quality and safety' (21.7%) and 'governance and assurance' (18.4%). Impact of SMQ on financial stability was equivocal; most trusts exiting SMQ experienced the same financial stability before and after exiting. Limitations: The rapid research design and one-year timeframe precludes longitudinal observations of trusts and local systems. The small number of indicators limited the quantitative analysis of impact. Measuring workforce effects was limited by data availability. Conclusions: Empirical evidence of positive impacts from SMQ/CP were identified, however, perceptions were mixed. Key lessons: • Time is needed to implement and embed changes. • Ways to mitigate emotional costs and stigma are needed. • Support strategies should be more trust specific. • Poor organisational performance needs to be addressed within local systems. • Senior leadership teams with stability, strong clinical input and previous SMQ experience helped enact change. • Organisation-wide quality improvement strategies and capabilities are needed. • Staff engagement and an open listening culture promote continuous learning and a quality improvement ‘mindset’, critical for sustainable improvement. • Need to consider level of sustainable funds required to improve patients’ outcomes. Future work: Evaluating recent changes to the regimes; role of local systems; longitudinal approaches. Study registration: Review protocol registered with PROSPERO (CRD: 42019131024). Funding: The National Institute for Health Research Health Services and Delivery Research programme (16/138/17 – Rapid Service Evaluation Research Team)

Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde

The contributors who wrote the texts and scores are: John Berndt, Felicity Ford, Panos Ghikas, Paul Gilgunn, Stephen Graham, Majella Munro, Simon O’Connor, Rían O’Rahallaigh, Nick Roth, Benedict Schlepper-Connolly, Jennifer Walshe. Thanks very much to Richard Devine for his recordings which brought Zaftig to life and Jack McMahon for his performance as Ultan O’Farrell, and to Malcolm Tyrrell for his dream of an episode of Hands focussing on Irish performance art.Before you begin reading the articles in this book and listening to the recordings on the Aisteach Foundation’s website, I have a confession to make – all of the composers and artists are fictional. The Aisteach Foundation and the Historical Documents of the Irish Avant-Garde are a communal thought experiment, a revisionist exercise in “what if?”, a huge effort by many people to create an alternative history of avant-garde music in Ireland, to write our ancestors into being and shape their stories with care. We played fast and loose with history and the truth and we like to think Flann O’Brien would have approved. I am extremely grateful to the Arts Council of Ireland for funding this project and allowing me to collaborate with the contributors listed below. If you feel there’s something we missed, something you want to have happened and would like to bring into being, please let us know. This project is dedicated with love to Bob Gilmore. Dr. Jennifer Walshe, President, Aisteach FoundationArts Council of Irelandhttp://www.lulu.com/shop/http://www.lulu.com/shop/jennifer-walshe/historical-documents-of-the-irish-avant-garde/paperback/product-22906851.html#productDetail

Rapid evaluation of the Special Measures for Quality and challenged provider regimes: a mixed-methods study

Background: Health-care organisations in England that are rated as inadequate for leadership and one other domain enter the Special Measures for Quality regime to receive support and oversight. A ‘watch list’ of challenged providers that are at risk of entering Special Measures for Quality also receive support. Knowledge is limited about whether or not the support interventions drive improvements in quality, the costs of the support interventions and whether or not the support interventions strike the right balance between support and scrutiny. Objective: To analyse the responses of trusts to the implementation of (1) interventions for Special Measures for Quality trusts and (2) interventions for challenged provider trusts to determine their impact on these organisations’ capacity to achieve and sustain quality improvements. Design: This was rapid research comprising five interrelated workstreams: (1) a literature review using systematic methods; (2) an analysis of policy documents and interviews at the national level; (3) eight multisite, mixed-methods trust case studies; (4) an analysis of national performance and workforce indicators; and (5) an economic analysis. Results: The Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes were intended to be ‘support’ programmes. Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes had an emotional impact on staff. Perceptions of NHS Improvement interventions were mixed overall. Senior leadership teams were a key driver of change, with strong clinical input being vital. Local systems have a role in improvement. Trusts focus efforts to improve across multiple domains. Internal and external factors contribute to positive performance trajectories. Nationally, only 15.8% of Special Measures for Quality trusts exited the regime in 24 months. Entry into Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes resulted in changes in quality indicators (such the number of patients waiting in emergency departments for more than 4 hours, mortality and the number of delayed transfers of care) that were more positive than national trends. The trends in staff sickness and absence improved after trusts left Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes. There was some evidence that staff survey results improved. No association was found between Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes and referral to treatment times or cancer treatment waiting times. NHS Improvement spending in case study trusts was mostly directed at interventions addressing ‘training on cultural change’ (33.6%), ‘workforce quality and safety’ (21.7%) and ‘governance and assurance’ (18.4%). The impact of Special Measures for Quality on financial stability was equivocal; most trusts exiting Special Measures for Quality experienced the same financial stability before and after exiting. Limitations: The rapid research design and 1-year time frame precludes longitudinal observations of trusts and local systems. The small number of indicators limited the quantitative analysis of impact. Measurement of workforce effects was limited by data availability. Conclusions: Empirical evidence of positive impacts of Special Measures for Quality/challenged provider regimes were identified; however, perceptions were mixed. Key lessons were that (1) time is needed to implement and embed changes; (2) ways to mitigate emotional costs and stigma are needed; (3) support strategies should be more trust specific; (4) poor organisational performance needs to be addressed within local systems; (5) senior leadership teams with stability, strong clinical input and previous Special Measures for Quality experience helped to enact change; (6) organisation-wide quality improvement strategies and capabilities are needed; (7) staff engagement and an open-listening culture promote continuous learning and a quality improvement ‘mindset’, which is critical for sustainable improvement; and (8) consideration of the level of sustainable funds required to improve patients’ outcomes is needed. Future work: Future work could include evaluating recent changes to the regimes, the role of local systems and longitudinal approaches. Study registration: The review protocol is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42019131024). Funding: This project was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research programme and will be published in full in Health and Social Care Delivery Research; Vol. 11, No. 19. See the NIHR Journals Library website for further project information