Higher Education Institutions
Dail Éireann — 2020-12-15
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

In October, the Minister admitted to me that it is common practice for universities to require PhD researchers to do five hours of teaching per week without payment. Similar to the situation with student nurses, the Minister tried to claim this was not work but merely an upskilling programme. These are workers working in universities through lockdown, running classes and laboratories, often by themselves, while students are paying the highest fees in the EU to be there. How can the Minister and the Government justify expecting them to continue to work for free?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2020-12-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:48:56+00:00
Sitting date: 2020-12-15