Modularisation/Semesterisation(/Trimesterisation)

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

shay_562 wrote:

If I'm understanding SOL right: without Fresher's Week, societies would lose a huge proportion of their members, since a lot of people will join up with dozens of societies during that week even if they never become active in more than a few (...hils...). We lose that, the societies lose money, a vital part of college social life is damaged. Maybe not a particularly compelling argument to someone who isn't hugely invested in the society side of college, but a point to be raised nonetheless.

No, I understand why Fresher's Week would mean societies losing members, but I don't understand why an earlier starting date would mean no Fresher's week..

cuckoo

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI wrote:

No, I understand why Fresher's Week would mean societies losing members, but I don't understand why an earlier starting date would mean no Fresher's week..

I don't see College getting rid of Fresher's week, it's a handy week for all the orientation stuff for incoming first years.

Crash

IIRC the early starting time will leave too little time between the CAO offers and acceptance etc., and the start of college, for there actually to be a freshers week.

I'm totally against the idea of losing freshers week personally - its one of the most fun and social times of the year (more so when you're not in first year:P) and i'd be very pissed off to see it go. otherwise we'll just become a dry ****e college like.

cuckoo

When do UCD, and other colleges, start their year?

I don't think that the needs of socs and sports clubs should really be considered that much when it comes to the relative merits of S and M, i think the unique strength of soc life in TCD is due to societies having rooms.

If a society is putting on good events, then it will thrive.

misefreisin

yeh if i'm not mistaken, ucd fresher's week is usually the second week of their lecture term. so..would an earlier start for us mean the same thing? lectures during fresher's week? MADNESS!

Agent Smith

cuckoo wrote:

When do UCD, and other colleges, start their year?

I don't think that the needs of socs and sports clubs should really be considered that much when it comes to the relative merits of S and M,

If a society is putting on good events, then it will thrive.

i read that Completely diffrently for a second...

[/soc hack mode]
Freshers week is vital for all Societies and sports club, Membership numbers are based solely on membership from that week, and from a few other events ( e.g, You need to be a Member of SFSOC to borrow books and DVD's, for example) People Dont join a society otherwise, would you join a society mid year? other then to go to an even or screening or trip?

Our freshers week starts 11th of september this year in NUIG!Although Paddy Reilly has sucked all the fun out of it.He was still a good president!

gilroyb

I think UCD have it in week 2 or 3. I know my UCD friends thought it was useless. Lectures still going on, and had spent a number of weeks in lectures with the people, so didn't make friends other than the one or two in their particular class. Freshers week in Trinity seems to encourage at least a little Ham/Arts interaction.

I'm going to be gone by the time all the fun of S&M kicks in, but the one thing about it that would really really annoy me if I was still here would be having exams just after Christmas. A number of my friends in different colleges have exams after Christmas, and it ruins their break. If it has to come in, try and make sure that Christmas break is actually a break.

ZWEI_VIER_ZWEI

gilroyb wrote:

I'm going to be gone by the time all the fun of S&M kicks in, but the one thing about it that would really really annoy me if I was still here would be having exams just after Christmas. A number of my friends in different colleges have exams after Christmas, and it ruins their break. If it has to come in, try and make sure that Christmas break is actually a break.

Yeah, that sounds really ****. I don't know why the powers-that-be feel the need to ruin what is probably one of the better calendars out there in Irish universities...

wheresthebeef

in nursing, our course is too packed into a small amount of weeks. I think we would definitely welcome semesterisation or modularisation to ease the workload and make things more organised. Trinitys academic year is too short anyway.
we had lectures during freshers week in first year, and from second year onwards we begin lectures the week before freshers week. and it is extremely horrible.
Freshers week can be moved, but I agree that it will probably have some impact on the quality and quantity of events at freshers week and soc and club activity.

SOL

SOL wrote:

Anyone considered that pushing into september would mean losing freshers week and be seriously bad for societies?

There is a rep from the SU, GSU, the Senior Tutor, the Dean of Students, and a rep from the Clubs and Societies on the working group so I assume it will definitely be thought of.

Nietzschean

why would moving terms mean the end of freshers week? not just move it around a bit? not like it'd make a huge difference to most people......

These have been sent to class reps, and should be up on the SU website shortly. They are only my notes, and are of course biased, but should still give you some indication about what has happened so far.

Oh! And I haven't identified any of the people who raised points, bar the Senior Lecturer. I'll leave that to the person writing the minutes.

europerson

One of the "reasons" being cited for semesterisation is that our current term structure is harming our ability to co-operate on research projects with semesterised universities. I've never heard anything quite so ridiculous in all the college policy discussions I've heard over the last couple of years. The proposition that our academic calendar is hindering research capabilities is just daft.

I think our system of terms with reading weeks and continual assessment is a very good system and is much more student-friendly than having semesters.

Nietzschean

not many of us have continual assessment though...if we had it in all courses i'd be happy with the way it is. But as pointed out it appears random at best....

cuckoo

europerson wrote:

I think our system of terms with reading weeks and continual assessment is a very good system and is much more student-friendly than having semesters.

AFAIK, the only course with reading weeks is BESS. And, as Nietschean said, continual assessment levels vary hugely across college.

I'd welcome some form of modularisation with open arms, at the moment i'm looking over my notes for a course that finished at the start of Dec. Given the choice, i'd prefer to have been examined on it last Dec/Jan then now.

Crash

aye i have a few like that - my only issue is that, like everything else in this college, they'll take a good idea, and bollocks it up.

europerson

I didn't think BESS was the only course with reading weeks: sorry! Just out of interest, here's the UCD academic calendar.

SOL

cuckoo wrote:

When do UCD, and other colleges, start their year?

I don't think that the needs of socs and sports clubs should really be considered that much when it comes to the relative merits of S and M, i think the unique strength of soc life in TCD is due to societies having rooms.

If a society is putting on good events, then it will thrive.

Firstly what crash said, we lose freshers week because the CAO isn't out on time.

Secondly, i think that given the level of importance of clubs and socs in any university they clearly warrant attention. TCD isn;t a degree factory, being an undergrad isn;t solely about lectures.

Thirdly, it is not only the rooms that make societies thrive it is the ability to continually get interested parties involved. Clearly to be able to put on events there has to be awareness before hand of the societies. I think without fw the socs lose alot of their sell.
As well as that the ammount of revenue that socs would lose from not having FW would shut allot of small societies down or cause them to be more dependant on CSC. (Long live the GMB) but seriously, It would make recruitment for small societies almost impossible because you would have to organise it beside lectures....

Unless freshers week was a week off a few weeks in and was renamed societies week for all years and there were no lectures... now there IS an idea...

Donal, what do you think?

ApeXaviour

europerson wrote:

One of the "reasons" being cited for semesterisation is that our current term structure is harming our ability to co-operate on research projects with semesterised universities. I've never heard anything quite so ridiculous in all the college policy discussions I've heard over the last couple of years. The proposition that our academic calendar is hindering research capabilities is just daft.

Agreed 100%. I think the head of our school has said that he's never once, in nearly 30 years, heard of the slightest inconvenience to cooperative research caused by our calender. I'd imagine these sentiments are reflected by other research schools too.

Correct me if I'm wrong but don't research students and staff work right the way through the year anyway? I mean bar normal working holidays and all that. So how would the way the calendar is affect them in the slightest?

SOL

SOL wrote:

Firstly what crash said, we lose freshers week because the CAO isn't out on time.

Secondly, i think that given the level of importance of clubs and socs in any university they clearly warrant attention. TCD isn;t a degree factory, being an undergrad isn;t solely about lectures.

Thirdly, it is not only the rooms that make societies thrive it is the ability to continually get interested parties involved. Clearly to be able to put on events there has to be awareness before hand of the societies. I think without fw the socs lose alot of their sell.
As well as that the ammount of revenue that socs would lose from not having FW would shut allot of small societies down or cause them to be more dependant on CSC. (Long live the GMB) but seriously, It would make recruitment for small societies almost impossible because you would have to organise it beside lectures....

Unless freshers week was a week off a few weeks in and was renamed societies week for all years and there were no lectures... now there IS an idea...

Donal, what do you think?

It really depends on when we actually start back, and what system we'll be going for! If we go 12 weeks + exams at the end, that'll be cutting it fine. If we go 12 weeks without exams, and have exams at end of year instead of end of semester, freshers' week could easily remain at week 0.

The disappearance of Freshers' Week was discussed back in '94 when there was an attempt to implement a modular/semester system, and was a concern! We haven't even started discussing the term structures yet

I'm sure there are some errors here, but this is for your information. There's another meeting tomorrow at 2-3 in the Walton Theatre.

Awayindahils

Myth wrote:

I'm sure there are some errors here, but this is for your information. There's another meeting tomorrow at 2-3 in the Walton Theatre.

i heard that today was quite poorly attended i emt someone who was going to go but said that they thought it was just for SU types when they saw who was going in.

was it any good? get any answer, as opposed to non-answers?

Crash

I like the piece about the bologna process :

Q: What is the driving force behind this? Why had this appeared now?
Is it to do with European legislation?
SL: There are a number of driving forces. One of which is the Bologna
Process, which implies we have to move towards an ECTS system.
We’ve to start thinking about this type of approach because of this. As
well as this, there is the issue of European trends. These are the
reasons why we’ve started to considering.
Q: There is nothing in the Bologna Process that says any University
has to go this way or not. It is as easy to describe the present system
that we have, and so the Bologna Process is not a driver of this
process.
SL: The previous speaker is indeed correct.

...am I the only one completely lost on that piece of argument?

Hermione*

Classic - his argument is completely invalidated by the questioner, and he agrees to it! I worry for our universities, I really do.

europerson

&#231 wrote: »

...am I the only one completely lost on that piece of argument?

Nope. You can count me in there too. Professor Rocket Muppet strikes again.

Crash

Its actually unbelievable. I think i might just wander along and be a pain in the ass.

top of my questions:

Why did you schedule these meetings so close to exams?
no, seriously why?
can you give me a straight answer? (i assume the answer will be "actually, thats inherently TWO questions, in that...")

Hermione*

&#231 wrote: »

Its actually unbelievable. I think i might just wander along and be a pain in the ass.

top of my questions:

Why did you schedule these meetings so close to exams?
no, seriously why?
can you give me a straight answer? (i assume the answer will be "actually, thats inherently TWO questions, in that...")

I hate that response. So you see two questions. Well then, all you have to do is give two answers. Simple!

&#231

&#231 wrote: »

I like the piece about the bologna process :

...am I the only one completely lost on that piece of argument?

These are only my notes, though that was what came across (to me) at the meeting.

Awayindahils

&#231 wrote: »

Why did you schedule these meetings so close to exams?
no, seriously why?
can you give me a straight answer? (i assume the answer will be "actually, thats inherently TWO questions, in that...")

quite close to what actually happened.


I tried responding to non answer answer with more questions didn't get me any closer to an actual answer. may try insulting them first next time:p