'As the Institute was affiliated to the University of Oxford I graduated with an Advanced Certificate in Education issued by the University'

'As the Institute was affiliated to the University of Oxford I graduated with an Advanced Certificate in Education issued by the University'

Frank remembers university life.

Frank Gaynor

Trinity College Dublin

1975

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Frank Gaynor

Marriage and Family

Life Story

Oxford, England

1970's

As the Institute was affiliated to the University of Oxford I graduated with an Advanced Certificate in Education issued by the University. The importance of this qualification for me emerged seven years later when it enabled me to get a place on a Masters Degree course at the University of London. While the core lectures at the Institute did not inspire me greatly there were many aspects of the course that I found interesting and enjoyable. I was in Dr Bill Hall's tutorial group. Under his guidance and encouragement I got the feeling that I was learning how to learn for the first time. A majority of my student colleagues were in senior positions in schools or colleges. During discussions they had a tendency to articulate very little at great length, using excessively complicated sentence structures. I was more comfortable with a simpler and more direct approach. Some came across as condescending, with remarks like 'I think I know what you are trying to say'. Each Thursday afternoon a member of staff took us on a visit to one of the 38 university colleges; for me each visit was a fascinating experience which left me with some interesting facts to ponder.My focus during my time at Norham Gardens was on management and administration in education. This included spending three days at the car manufacturing plant in Cowley, just outside Oxford, where the Leyland Princess car was being produced. We had a number of meetings with middle - management and observed the workers on the production line. When we arrived for our second day we were surprised to find that work had come to a complete halt. It had rained during the night and some water had come on to the factory floor. When one of the assembly line workers was asked to help with sweeping out the water he refused, claiming it was not part of his job. This led to work on the assembly line coming to a halt for the rest of that day. At that time over 20,000 people worked in Cowley; the majority of them employed by Leyland or Pressed Steel. Relations between workers and management at Leyland were not good. Both sides seemed to operate strictly along Us and Them lines with very few shared views. It was in the Sheldonian Theatre, situated near the Bodleian Library, that I listened to Julius Nyerere, then President of Tanzania, as he told us that while Tanzania claimed to be a Socialist Democratic Republic, in practice it was neither socialist nor democratic - something he would not have publicly stated in Tanzania. At that time I was a great fan of Nyerere both as a politician and as a person. While I subsequently lost faith in his politics I continued to admire him as a person. He remained a humble man with modest living standards. I was excited as I went along to hear him. He had a warm friendly presence, and was an excellent speaker.

Irish Research Council for Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences (IRCHSS)

Dr Kathleen McTiernan (Trinity College Dublin)

Dr Deirdre O'Donnell (Trinity College Dublin)