They've entirely changed English?!

jimi_t

Anyone going into 3rd ENG would want to check their UCD eMail. NOW.

This is the biggest ****ing mess I've seen yet in UCD. And I've seen a lot of messes.

Dave!

What's the dealio jimi? I don't study English, but I'm terribly curious now........

pretty*monster

I'm very curious indeed.

Will it be worse then when the second year 20th Century Lit course was changed to a 20th Century Drama (plus one lecture on Joyce and one on Eliot which included about 10 mins on The Waste Land, whichif you know anything about The Waste Land you'll know is not enough time) without telling anyone until the first day of lectures?
Will it be worse than when they doubled the amount of core courses taken by final years and thought that knocking a couple of hundred words off the essay word count balanced things out?
Worse than when they invited first semester first years to write an essay about post-modernism after devoating about 20min of class time to it and giving us tutors who didn't necesserily know the first thing about post-modernism because they also had to teach Middle English?
Worse than getting us to buy the riotously expensive Norton Anthology of English that we'd 'use throughout our whole degree' and then setting the first set of poetsy essays on poems that weren't in the bloody anthology?

I can't wait to find out.

Dave!

I'll save you the hastle of waiting: yes.

randomchild

No email in my account. Whats going on?

Dave!

you dont wanna know mate. Oh emm jee!!!!

Pride Fighter

Probably a good thing I dropped it after first year.

randomchild

Still no e-mail... I call shenanigans!

jimi_t

UCD wrote:

Hello,

We're writing to let you know that the School of English, Drama and Film has revised its curriculum for undergraduate English students. One main reason for these changes is to help you to make clear and coherent choices about your pathways through your degree. It will now be easier for you to follow your own particular research and reading interests from Stage Two to Stage Three.

Seems perfectly reasonable?

Waffle,Waffle At Stage Three, you will no longer have compulsory core lecture modules but you will be free to build up your credits from a wide range of options (up to fifty options with only 15 students in each option) and stand-alone lecture courses (up to fifty in each class).

:mad: Beautiful, just beautiful. As if modularisation wasn't already a complete mess, they're now modularising the modules themselves...

Asides from this, you have very little grounds for appeals, you don't have a basemark to go against, some courses are going to be softly marked while others will have post-graduates on a power-trip. It's basically going to be a complete luck of the draw as to what kind of degree you'll get...

Registration for modules will not take place until mid/late August - please keep an eye on your mail for the exact dates - these are controlled by the university's central administration, not by the School of English, Drama and Film

And guess what the programme office is going to say when you encounter a problem? Pre-emptive denial of accountability. Par for the course at this stage.

We advise you to register in good time to have the best chance of getting your place in the co-core option modules (approx 170 students per module) . It is best to do so as soon as you are informed that registration is open.

i.e. Not a hope in hell you're going to get anything you're remotely interested in, even if you do manage to find any course that doesn't completely clash with your timetable.

Have a good summer, and see you in September

Oh you certainly will be.

Fionnuala Dillane

Who?

randomchild

I now call shenanigans on english dept! Clearly a late april fools joke!

jimi_t

pretty*monster wrote: »

I'm very curious indeed.

Will it be worse then when the second year 20th Century Lit course was changed to a 20th Century Drama (plus one lecture on Joyce and one on Eliot which included about 10 mins on The Waste Land, whichif you know anything about The Waste Land you'll know is not enough time) without telling anyone until the first day of lectures?
Will it be worse than when they doubled the amount of core courses taken by final years and thought that knocking a couple of hundred words off the essay word count balanced things out?
Worse than when they invited first semester first years to write an essay about post-modernism after devoating about 20min of class time to it and giving us tutors who didn't necesserily know the first thing about post-modernism because they also had to teach Middle English?
Worse than getting us to buy the riotously expensive Norton Anthology of English that we'd 'use throughout our whole degree' and then setting the first set of poetsy essays on poems that weren't in the bloody anthology?

I can't wait to find out.

I can see far far worse problems arising form using us as a set of academic guinea pigs this time round. It shouldn't fall as any of our responsibility, but a few (separate) people I was talking to were sounding out plans to send a petition to the HEA cc'd to Batt O' Keefe etc... Since I've begun, some fundamental aspect of every module I've been participated in has been changed at short notice and with little or no communication/consultation with students; effectively causing problems such as you've described to arise. Considering the amound of money that goes into such departments, and the reputation of UCD, this is completely unacceptable.

Wouldn't it be lovely if the UCDSU, rather than prancing about banning coke and arguing about backing shell-to-sea could actually initiate a forum where any of the quoted problems could at least try to be rectified. Indeed, what in gods name have any of the English 'reps' done for us. Haven't heard so much of a peep from any one of them since 1st year.

Breezer

jimi_t wrote: »

Wouldn't it be lovely if the UCDSU, rather than prancing about banning coke and arguing about backing shell-to-sea could actually initiate a forum where any of the quoted problems could at least try to be rectified.

I'm not trying to come across all snide, but have you spoken to the Education Officer? This sort of thing is his job. My friend in Comm Intl. had a few problems this year and had a good talk with Ronan Shanahan about it. Not sure how much input Ronan had into the process but it was sorted (or at least improved) anyway.

jimi_t

Breezer wrote: »

I'm not trying to come across all snide, but have you spoken to the Education Officer? This sort of thing is his job. My friend in Comm Intl. had a few problems this year and had a good talk with Ronan Shanahan about it. Not sure how much input Ronan had into the process but it was sorted (or at least improved) anyway.

It's not a personal problem, rather its a systematic set of deficiencies related to fundamental aspects of how a whole school is being run. I really don't think they're going to listen to the Ed. Officer, but I suppose its worth putting it on paper.

Blush_01

Par for the course.

Breezer

jimi_t wrote: »

It's not a personal problem, rather its a systematic set of deficiencies related to fundamental aspects of how a whole school is being run. I really don't think they're going to listen to the Ed. Officer, but I suppose its worth putting it on paper.

Oh believe me, the problems in Comm. this year weren't exactly personal problems either. Try it. That's what he's there for.

dajaffa

Sure forward the email to sueducation@ucd.ie. Paul Lynam will be taking over soon and he knows the setup in Arts well enough to get cracking on it quickly enough.

inverted_world

jimi_t wrote: »

Asides from this, you have very little grounds for appeals, you don't have a basemark to go against, some courses are going to be softly marked while others will have post-graduates on a power-trip. It's basically going to be a complete luck of the draw as to what kind of degree you'll get...

How?

Why don't you email Fionnuala Dillane (she is a lecturer in the 19th Century lit. area and very approachable) and express these concerns? I believe that in my final year, if some courses were in very high demand, they increased the number if students able to register.

It's a no-win situation, really. People will complain if they are forced to take a course in, say, Renaissance literature, when they woud rather concentrate on Medieval literature, yet if they offer the choice to pick from whatever area you are most interested in, there will be complaints that not everyone will get in to what they want. The seminar options (which, I assume are simailar to the fifty options referred to in the email) have always been limited to around fifteen people. And most are offered in both semesters.

convert

jimi_t wrote: »

some courses are going to be softly marked while others will have post-graduates on a power-trip.

Postgraduates who grade assignments have the majority of their grades double-marked by a lecturer to make sure they're not grading too harshly/easily. From my experience, most posgrads have been told they're actually marking to leniently rather than vice-versa.


You have to hand it to English for changing their format for final years. This is going to cause untold problems!

griffdaddy

hold on, I have no email about this and i'm going into 3rd year. It could be that i'm coming from erasmus and haven't passed my '3rd' year yet. I've already got so much to sort out coming back and trying to plan a masters, i need this like a third ball.

Lizziepoos

Yeah, I'm petrified about these changes but I haven't gotten any email about it either! Had everything sorted and planned for 3rd year module wise and now suddenly apparently everythings changed and UCD hasn't informed me about it. Don't know what's going on here...

BlackMamba

:eek::eek:
Why god why?!?!

Lizziepoos

Sorry, I don't mean to be funny or anything but has anyone other than the OP of this thread received this email? Part of me is hoping against hopes that there's possibly been a mistake somewhere along the line...

pretty*monster

Sorry?
I really don't see the change apart from removing core courses (which will be nice for those who don't want to study Chaucer for the thirsd year in a row or similar).
What's the fuss?

babycookie777

Has anyone else had this e-mail? I am also going into 3rd ENG and have had no such e-mail. I'd really like to know what's going on!

Tá Mé Gaeilge

1. There are no structural changes to Stage 3 undergraduate English for 2008-09.

2. There will be some differences in Stage 3 option modules and Single Major modules because of staff changes (retirements; new appointments, etc)

3. The School is in the process of phasing in a revised undergraduate curriculum for all English students. For 2008-09 this new curriculum will run at Stage One and Stage Two ONLY.
An email was sent via Blackboard to all students registered to our four core Stage One courses for 2007-08 alerting those students who are now considering majoring in English at Stage 2 (commencing 2008-09) that the structure of the English degree would not be same as it has been in previous years. An outline of Stage Two courses (for 2008-09) was provided (see attached document) and students were told that because of these changes, their Stage 3 (in 2009-10) would not be the same as the current Stage 3.

4. Stage 3 of the new curriculum will run for the first time in 2009-10.

5. Stage X students will have the opportunity to complete the programme they started on where possible. When this is not possible, such students will be directed to equivalent modules to ensure that they have every opportunity to complete a full, balanced and varied degree.

6. The revised curriculum is intended to ensure that students will be able to make more informed choices about their modules and about the content and shape of their degree; it provides structured support at the early stages of the degree and increased independence of learning and more choice as students move through the programme.

For further information please contact me at education@ucdsu.ie
Paul Lynam
Education Officer
UCD Students' Union