The saddest thing of all about the news this week that Trinity had fallen to 120th in the Times Higher Education world rankings was the trudging inevitability of it. For one reason or another, the College seems unable to arrest a slump that has – with the notable exception of last year – marked out a significant aggregate decline to its international reputation. In 2012, for context, Trinity finished 67th in the QS rankings. It’s a plummet with serious symbolic and practical implications for a university fighting for its right to be considered world class, yet nobody seemed remotely surprised – much less worried – when the news broke.
If there is one thing Trinity’s administrative structures are not known for, it’s their efficiency. You would, then, be forgiven for stifling a laugh at the news that the College is planning to overhaul its entire timetabling system in time for the beginning of next year. You don’t need to be a cynic to question the capability of the College to implement, in such a short window, such an enormous change to the way it organises its classes. Cautionary tales abound, most strikingly last year’s inability of Academic Registry to begin charging students the agreed €30 student centre levy, despite several months’ notice.
From an outsider’s perspective, it is somewhat startling to see even the University Philosophical Society (the Phil) struggle with gender equality issues. For one thing – as current Phil president Sorcha Ryder has pointed out – four of the past six presidents have been female. That is a far better record than Trinity College Dublin Students’ Union, which seems almost incapable of fostering an organisation in which women want to lead. And while the Phil’s issues are surely not as bad as those experienced by the College Historical Society (the Hist) some years ago, they are a reminder that a welcoming society organisation is not the same as a welcoming debating chamber.
