CLEO Blog
Br JM Feheney
For quite a while now, I have been thinking that CLEO needs a mechanism to keep in touch with its hundreds of alumni. The reader will recall that CLEO was founded as a ministry in tertiary education, focussing especially on assistance and support for those involved in administering and providing Christian education. Moreover, in keeping with who we are, we emphasise the Catholic understanding and tradition of education in our programmes.
I am reluctant, however, to believe that this assistance and support for students should cease on their graduation. We have to be open to new needs and new ways of responding to them. This blog will at least begin the dialogue between faculty and students/ alumni. Kind reader, please remember that the life-blood of any blogger, with which group I now belatedly ally myself, is feedback. There is little hope of my remarks continuing to be relevant to you unless you communicate with me. So please use my email address to send me your ideas and comments.
CLEO a Company
CLEO was started by the Presentation Brothers and remains firmly and deeply embedded in the Presentation Family. It has, however, undergone a change in legal identity. It is now incorporated as a company limited by guarantee having no share capital and it has been accorded charitable status. Its registered office continues Its registered office continues to be at Mardyke House, Mardyke Walk, Cork (the address now conveniently abbreviated to Cork T12 W8RP). Br. Matthew continues his association with CLEO: He is its Company Secretary and one of the company directors. Dr Frank Steele continues to lead CLEO. He is its CEO and, to avoid confusion with other roles in any company, is now designated Dean of Studies.
Programme
Despite recent financial cutbacks in all aspects of education, CLEO continues its MEd programme and currently has a full student cohort in each of its three years. The on-going collaboration with the University of Hull has now been given full legal expression in a Memorandum of Understanding formally agreed between CLEO Ltd, on the one hand, and, on the other, the University of Hull. CLEO students still travel to Hull for the Conferring Ceremonies, when they are often joined by Professors Alan McClelland, Mike Bottery and Dr John Smith. Though Professors McClelland and Bottery have now moved on, the first to retirement, the second to Faculty duties, both remain intensely interested in CLEO. Dr John Smith has, in fact, also retired but, by decision of the Faculty, he continues to act as Programme Director for the CLEO/Hull ADAES/MEd Programme. This is something we warmly welcome, since over the past 18 years, Dr Smith has been a regular visitor to Mardyke House and a valued academic colleague.
Academic Oversight
One cannot but admire the thoroughness of the academic supervision and oversight exercised by the University of Hull on the CLEO programme. Every piece of academic work is double-marked by CLEO before being inspected in detail by Dr John Smith for the University. Moreover, samples of assignments from every module are then forwarded to the University's External Examiner to ensure that the standards set in the UK are being maintained by CLEO examiners. It will also be recalled that final examination results are determined, not by CLEO, but by the University's Examination Board.
CLEO Examination Results
With the aid of this methodical monitoring of academic standards, CLEO has managed to carve out an enviable reputation for high academic standards. Among the most reliable, and undoubtedly the most intelligible, indicators of academic excellence of any given course are a) the number who failed (are 'referred') and b) the number who are awarded the Distinction mark (i.e. First Class Honours). In the light of these criteria, CLEO students continue to perform at a very high level. In the latest batch of results, no CLEO student was "referred" (i.e. "failed"). The majority were accorded a Credit (i.e., Second Class Honours). Four were accorded a Distinction (i.e. First Class Honours). To put this achievement in some kind of context, it should be noted that just six students in all were accorded a Distinction in the MEd programme at the University of Hull last year. That four of that six were CLEO students is noteworthy. Moreover, one of those four CLEO students was awarded the Elizabeth Halsall Prize, which is awarded each year by the Faculty of Education to the MEd student deemed to have submitted the best dissertation overall. CLEO alumnae will, however, know that this is not a new development, but has occurred regularly since CLEO presented its first students for MED in 1995.
Ongoing Research
While I hope to give some news of on-going research by CLEO students in future blogs, I would like to remind readers now that the titles of all MEd Dissertations, together with abstracts of same, are now online on our CLEO website. They are arranged alphabetically under ‘MEd Dissertations’.
Br JM Feheney
For quite a while now, I have been thinking that CLEO needs a mechanism to keep in touch with its hundreds of alumni. The reader will recall that CLEO was founded as a ministry in tertiary education, focussing especially on assistance and support for those involved in administering and providing Christian education. Moreover, in keeping with who we are, we emphasise the Catholic understanding and tradition of education in our programmes.
I am reluctant, however, to believe that this assistance and support for students should cease on their graduation. We have to be open to new needs and new ways of responding to them. This blog will at least begin the dialogue between faculty and students/ alumni. Kind reader, please remember that the life-blood of any blogger, with which group I now belatedly ally myself, is feedback. There is little hope of my remarks continuing to be relevant to you unless you communicate with me. So please use my email address to send me your ideas and comments.
CLEO a Company
CLEO was started by the Presentation Brothers and remains firmly and deeply embedded in the Presentation Family. It has, however, undergone a change in legal identity. It is now incorporated as a company limited by guarantee having no share capital and it has been accorded charitable status. Its registered office continues Its registered office continues to be at Mardyke House, Mardyke Walk, Cork (the address now conveniently abbreviated to Cork T12 W8RP). Br. Matthew continues his association with CLEO: He is its Company Secretary and one of the company directors. Dr Frank Steele continues to lead CLEO. He is its CEO and, to avoid confusion with other roles in any company, is now designated Dean of Studies.
Programme
Despite recent financial cutbacks in all aspects of education, CLEO continues its MEd programme and currently has a full student cohort in each of its three years. The on-going collaboration with the University of Hull has now been given full legal expression in a Memorandum of Understanding formally agreed between CLEO Ltd, on the one hand, and, on the other, the University of Hull. CLEO students still travel to Hull for the Conferring Ceremonies, when they are often joined by Professors Alan McClelland, Mike Bottery and Dr John Smith. Though Professors McClelland and Bottery have now moved on, the first to retirement, the second to Faculty duties, both remain intensely interested in CLEO. Dr John Smith has, in fact, also retired but, by decision of the Faculty, he continues to act as Programme Director for the CLEO/Hull ADAES/MEd Programme. This is something we warmly welcome, since over the past 18 years, Dr Smith has been a regular visitor to Mardyke House and a valued academic colleague.
Academic Oversight
One cannot but admire the thoroughness of the academic supervision and oversight exercised by the University of Hull on the CLEO programme. Every piece of academic work is double-marked by CLEO before being inspected in detail by Dr John Smith for the University. Moreover, samples of assignments from every module are then forwarded to the University's External Examiner to ensure that the standards set in the UK are being maintained by CLEO examiners. It will also be recalled that final examination results are determined, not by CLEO, but by the University's Examination Board.
CLEO Examination Results
With the aid of this methodical monitoring of academic standards, CLEO has managed to carve out an enviable reputation for high academic standards. Among the most reliable, and undoubtedly the most intelligible, indicators of academic excellence of any given course are a) the number who failed (are 'referred') and b) the number who are awarded the Distinction mark (i.e. First Class Honours). In the light of these criteria, CLEO students continue to perform at a very high level. In the latest batch of results, no CLEO student was "referred" (i.e. "failed"). The majority were accorded a Credit (i.e., Second Class Honours). Four were accorded a Distinction (i.e. First Class Honours). To put this achievement in some kind of context, it should be noted that just six students in all were accorded a Distinction in the MEd programme at the University of Hull last year. That four of that six were CLEO students is noteworthy. Moreover, one of those four CLEO students was awarded the Elizabeth Halsall Prize, which is awarded each year by the Faculty of Education to the MEd student deemed to have submitted the best dissertation overall. CLEO alumnae will, however, know that this is not a new development, but has occurred regularly since CLEO presented its first students for MED in 1995.
Ongoing Research
While I hope to give some news of on-going research by CLEO students in future blogs, I would like to remind readers now that the titles of all MEd Dissertations, together with abstracts of same, are now online on our CLEO website. They are arranged alphabetically under ‘MEd Dissertations’.