THE QUALIFICATIONS of final year radiography students in UCD may be at risk because of a dispute involving lecturers in the radiography department.

Lecturers in the school of diagnostic imaging, based in St Vincent's Hospital, Dublin have apparently refused to hold examinations until a long running dispute involving their status has been resolved.

The lecturers are paid by the Department of Health but want to be part of UCD, in which case their salaries would be paid by the Department of Education. The UCD authorities are believed to have no particular difficulty with this, but negotiations are continuing between the two departments involved and the Higher Education Authority.

Late last month, second year students became the first to be affected by the dispute when their examinations were not held. There are 80 students in total in the school, 20 in each of the four years of study.

"It should have been sorted out months ago," says UCD students' union education officer Cormac Moore. "Students are in an absolute limbo because of it."

According to a spokesman for UCD, the radiography staff have not yet submitted their examination papers, but the exams had been scheduled and they would run as scheduled, unless the students are told to the contrary.

A joint committee, comprising the Departments of Education and Health and the Higher Education Authority has been convened to examine the issue, but no solution appears to be forthcoming as yet.

According to a spokesman for the HEA, the committee has sought information from the authorities in both UCD and TCD, which has a course in therapeutic radiography based in St Luke's Hospital and whose staff are also understood to be seeking a transfer to the Department of Education. When that information becomes available the committee will meet "in a matter of days" to consider the situation again, the spokesman says.