GMIT spent €5,000 on report into lecturers insulting students on video call

Gordon Deegan

A third-level college paid out €5,000 to an independent investigator to carry out a report into lecturers insulting and ridiculing students on a video call.

In December 2020, president of the Galway and Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) Dr Orla Flynn issued an apology after a recording emerged of two GMIT lecturers using offensive language when discussing students who had just given virtual presentations.

One of the lecturers likened listening to the students to "drilling teeth", saying: "I thought I’d have to get a drill and start drilling my teeth, they were so painful to be listening to."

The unnamed lecturers apparently believed it was a private discussion and that the connection to the students had ended. In fact, some were still watching and at least one recorded the exchange.

GMIT is now part of the recently established multi-campus Atlantic Technological University (ATU) and in a reference to the episode for GMIT, GMIT's 2021/20 annual report states that a “significant data breach arose from a recording of student assessments”.

The annual report states that the "incident was the subject of a report by an independent investigator" which was completed in the third quarter of 2021.

'Unreservedly apologised'

On the report into the incident, an ATU spokesman confirmed on Monday that the cost to GMIT was €5,000.

He said: "GMIT unreservedly apologised to all students involved in this incident and to the wider student body for the very regrettable occurrence which took place in December 2020."

He said an independent investigator was commissioned by GMIT to ensure that an incident like it did not reoccur.

He added that the recommendations of the report "included staff and student training - in technology and communications - and the instigation of a new student/staff forum to enhance relations and encourage open and transparent communication between students and staff".

“These recommendations have since been implemented,” he said.

"At the outbreak of the pandemic new technologies and remote learning methods were quickly adopted without the usual expected training and roll-out procedures. The training of staff and students in technology and communications have since been issued to help mitigate any future data breaches of this nature."

He added: "We will continue to work to improve student experience and teaching methods to ensure incidents such as these never occur again."

Asked to provide a copy of the report and if any sanction had been imposed on the lecturers arising from the report, the ATU spokesman said: "As the report identifies individuals involved we are not in a position to share this information or to comment on individual cases."