UCC offers support to lecturer following claims of drunkenness in class

Students at University College Cork (UCC) have raised concerns with college management amid allegations that a lecturer arrived drunk to a class and had to be escorted from the room by security.

A UCC student representative for the class wrote to their department head to express their anger at the incident after the lecturer arrived apparently intoxicated, swore at students, slurred their words and eventually had to be escorted from the room by university security after falling down.

A statement from UCC said it was aware of the incident and has organised a meeting to support the affected students and is providing support to the class instructor.

The class rep described it as 'extremely unacceptable behaviour' in the email to the department head.

“Each student of this course is paying a vast amount of money to receive the best education possible (between €10,000 and €15,000) and we are not getting this in this class.

“Students have come halfway across the world to UCC to study these modules and this is what they were faced with yesterday,” the rep added.

The class rep explained that students knew something was amiss when the lecturer failed to log into the computer system on a number of occasions, was slurring their words and was unable to communicate properly.

Minutes into the class, the lecturer apparently swore at the students prompting a number of them to leave.

The lecturer then fell over after trying to stand and two students have to lift them back into the chair and offer some water.

Eventually, students approached reception in the building and security arrived to escort the lecturer out.

The class rep added the students are concerned about the lecturer's health.

The student also raised concerns about the quality of the class even before this incident.

“Both students and families are extremely angry and disappointed by what happened yesterday and something must be done about this,” they added.

“It is completely unacceptable for students to have to pick up an intoxicated lecturer off the floor and take care of them.”