Politics & Society Teaching-Masters count?

forgetfulme

Hi all,


I am sure this has come up before...I am just going through the re-registration process with the Teaching Co at the moment and wondered would I qualify to teach P&S. I hold a BA in History & Geography and an MA in International Relations.

The requirement states "applicants must hold degree-level qualification...with combo of subjects (geo/hist/IR) comprising a min total of 60 ECTS."

This reads like you have to do it as part of your primary degree? My MA was 90 ECTS but is from UCC where IR MA is awarded through the History Department....I'm not sure this will make a difference.

Any insight or lived experience would be much appreciated!

gaiscioch

Yes, I would expect you must secure those 60 ECT credits as part of a degree, or to be more precise as degree credits (I qualified in another subject by doing the degree credits in UCD at night while teaching full time, but getting an "exit qualification" called a 'Higher Diploma in Arts', which satisfied the TC requirements to register for that subject).

Nevertheless, the short, certain answer is you'll have to pay the TC €100 to get them to "assess" that Master's for you. No matter what. I've a full degree in politics from UCD and I would still need to pay them €100 to "assess" that exotic degree (it would take them perhaps 10 seconds to see it qualifies). The TC was very clear about its money-extracting status on this precise issue. Joke organisation.

An interesting bit of registration information is on this webpage, however:

Politics & Society
Effective for registration purposes from 1 January 2021

In order to meet the registration requirements set down in the Teaching Council (Registration) Regulations in respect of the curricular subject of Politics and Society, an applicant must meet all of the following criteria:

(a) Applicants must hold a degree-level qualification, with Politics/Political Science or Sociology, or a combination of at least three of the following areas: Politics/Political Science, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, European Studies, Public Administration, Government, Development, Media Studies, Economics, History, Geography, International Relations or Philosophy comprising a
minimum total of 60 ECTS credits or equivalent.

(b) The qualifying degree must be equivalent to at least Level 8 on the National Framework of Qualifications (NFQ) and must carry at least 180 ECTS (European Credit Transfer System) credits (or equivalent).
(c) Applicants must also have completed a post-primary initial teacher education (age range12-18 years) carrying a minimum of 120 ECTS credits (or equivalent).

Even if you have all of those qualifications and every single degree ever issued by an Irish university - you'll still have to pay them to "assess" it.

Treppen

gaiscioch wrote: »

Yes, I would expect you must secure those 60 ECT credits as part of a degree, or to be more precise as degree credits (I qualified in another subject by doing the degree credits in UCD at night while teaching full time, but getting an "exit qualification" called a 'Higher Diploma in Arts', which satisfied the TC requirements to register for that subject).

Nevertheless, the short, certain answer is you'll have to pay the TC €100 to get them to "assess" that Master's for you. No matter what. I've a full degree in politics from UCD and I would still need to pay them €100 to "assess" that exotic degree (it would take them perhaps 10 seconds to see it qualifies). The TC was very clear about its money-extracting status on this precise issue. Joke organisation.

An interesting bit of registration information is on this webpage, however:



Even if you have all of those qualifications and every single degree ever issued by an Irish university - you'll still have to pay them to "assess" it.

There should be a mechanism whereby you can get a refund or automatic registration if someone else with the exact same qualifications has gotten registration. But that would make too much sense.

gaiscioch

Treppen wrote: »

There should be a mechanism whereby you can get a refund or automatic registration if someone else with the exact same qualifications has gotten registration. But that would make too much sense.

I don't actually recall having to pay to get my subjects "assessed" in 2010 - they were standard UCD degrees and were accepted without a fee (somebody could contradict this, though?). I actually checked my registration on the TC website and when I registered with the TC in 2010 Politics is recorded on their system from that time as the second subject in the joint degree (180 credits). As only the other subject could be registered for at that time, they just registered that other subject. However, the exam transcript which I gave them at the time was for both subjects. (you can only register to teach Politics and Society since January of this year, 2021)

Now, I'm expected to pay €23 to UCD for the transcript again and then €100 to the TC for them to "assess" it - even though it has equal weight (90 ECT) as the other subject on the same joint degree, which the TC accepted in 2010, and I gave them this evidence 11 years ago. So I have to earn €200 plus to pay this €123. Joke organisation.

forgetfulme

Yeah, it's all a bit of a joke really.