TUI response to publication of Public Health Implementation Guidelines for HEIs (Click here for this document):
‘There is no reference in the document to resourcing and funding, which is of course the key issue, as without adequate resourcing, neither on-site or off-site teaching and learning can be of the requisite quality. In addition, without the requisite funding, measures required to ensure that the health and safety of staff and students are protected cannot be properly implemented.
The TUI, on behalf of members, has demanded additional staffing so that the insupportable burden of additional workload can be alleviated in an appropriate manner. We are also concerned to know what additional budget is being made available for minor works, adjustment of facilities, enhanced cleaning and time off for the lead worker representative. We need to know what proportion of the €168m that has been provided for the Higher and Further Education sector is being apportioned to Institutes of Technology/Technological University sectors. These are reasonable questions to which prompt answers are required.
The TUI has made it clear that the re-opening cannot be predicated on imposing additional workload on lecturers and researchers who were even before Covid-19 already discharging workload that was way above the domestic and international norms. The TUI has sought as a matter of urgency meetings both with Minister Harris and with his senior officials.’