Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT) has apologised to students after lecturers were overheard insulting them online.
Students were able to hear the lecturers allocate marks after an online presentation remained live.
According to The Irish Examiner, one of the lecturers referred to a student as “that f**king [student's name]” and speculated there was “something wrong with” a female student.
The other lecturer said she felt like “drilling [her] teeth” because one of the students was “so painful to be listening to”.
A recording of the conversation, which is understood to have taken place last week, has been shared extensively on messaging applications such as Snapchat and WhatsApp.
Dr Orla Flynn, president of GMIT, said apologies would be issued directly to the students concerned.
“I would like to wholeheartedly apologise to our students for the data breach that has caused such deep hurt and dismay,” she said.
“GMIT is known as a student-centred institute and some of the comments made by our staff do not reflect the values to which we aspire.
“We are taking the breaches of GMIT policies and data protection legislation very seriously. Apologies will be issued to the students directly concerned.”
