National College of Ireland was surprised and disappointed to read a recent article on The Journal entitled “The Summit is hiring, but check your degree, especially where you got it from.”
Quoting Paddy Cosgrave on the Dublin Web Summit’s recruiting of new staff, the article stated:
“The Summit says that, for people who have graduated since 2010, they will only consider applicants who achieved 1st class honours degrees from UCD, UCC, NUIG, DCU, UL or NUI Maynooth.
Graduates at Trinity College Dublin however will be considered if they achieved the lower 2.1 grade.
Furthermore, for graduates of Institutes of Technology who achieved a BA, BSc or similar, they are required to have gone on to also secure a Masters to be considered."
NCI refutes the implication that “high quality graduates” can only be found at the institutions stated, along with the inference that degrees and graduates from other colleges are considered by Mr Cosgrave to be inferior.
This is deeply upsetting for students who have chosen to study at other colleges, including National College of Ireland, and who have graduated with degrees that are recognised for their equivalence by QQI (Quality and Qualifications Ireland) – the body responsible for quality assurance of all Irish universities, Institutes of Technology and colleges.
NCI is proud of the quality of its graduates, who have achieved considerable success and who have been praised for their work with discerning employers such as Microsoft, Google, PayPal, Amazon and many others.
NCI was rated ‘Best for Jobs’ in the Sunday Times University Guide 2013 which ranked third level institutions in the UK and Ireland. They said: "National College of Ireland has one of the most consistent and best graduate employment records and this year is no different....Interaction with companies including Microsoft, IBM & Fujitsu have helped to make the NCI Cloud Competency Centre a leader in its field."
We work hard to ensure that our Business and Computing degrees are at the leading edge of emerging academic and industry practice. As an example, our new programmes in Cloud Computing are informed by an advisory board consisting of luminaries such as Professor Jeffrey Ullman (Stanford), Professor Michael Franklin and Armando Fox (Berkley) and Professor John Hopcroft (Cornell). Just last week we were awarded Gold for Employability by the AHECS gradireland awards.
College President Dr Phillip Matthews has written to express these views to Mr Cosgrave and to express his concerns over such statements being attributed to a board member of the Higher Education Authority in Ireland.
His letter concludes that if Mr Cosgrave is seeking “some of the most dynamic, adaptable, cutting edge higher education institutions in the ICT sector, you may need to look beyond your view of the “elite".