New Law School on the block

dumbyearbook

Hi All,

any thoughts?

www.independentcolleges.ie

http://www.independentcolleges.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=46&Itemid=61

Tom Young

If its anything like the Sunday Indo I wouldn't buy it to look at the pictures.

The CEO was on Morning Ireland talking it up. I guess the O'Reilly dynasty has certain legal connections in the country.

Maybe wait and see!?

I note many of the listed lecturers are really quite good. Particularly the heads of school and Company law.

EdgarAllenPoo

Only just noticed Corbett and Burke are involved in that. I didn't know they had left GCD.

Tom Young

I spotted that too. Maybe they haven't.

EdgarAllenPoo

They have, but I only realised it now, just shows I was paying attention at induction yesterday.

Tom Young

LOL - Paying attention is important.

cycleoin

Their departure from GCD was very "Sudden".

Have to say though, they were the backbone of GCD and I wish them all the best. Great guys, got me through my degree. Not sure what GCD has to offer without that crop of excellent lecturers?!

One thing though - Independant College Dublin?! Are they havin' a laugh? They can't call the college that! Its so naff!

EdgarAllenPoo

cycleoin wrote:

One thing though - Independant College Dublin?! Are they havin' a laugh? They can't call the college that! Its so naff!

It's better than Herald AM University;)

Tom Young

Wonder do they do those Internet PhD's? I've always liked sound of Doctor. Its got such a better ring than M'lord.

johnnyskeleton

All they do, for the moment at least, is prep for the FE1s. They use the Royal College of Physicians' premises. They're just a bunch of guys.

Course Fees
€375 per subject or €2,800 for all eight.

Tuition for the First Irish Examination is also available. The fee for this course is €200 or students may purchase the Materials only for €75. Please note that this course is delivered in Dublin only. The programme consists of five evening sessions (18:30 – 21:30) to take place Monday Dec 3rd to Wednesday Dec 5th inclusive and Monday Dec 10th – Tuesday Dec 11th 2007

But the timetable has 2 courses - 1 running from monday to thursday, the other thursday to sunday. So how does that fit in?

Also, how much are you paying? 375 per subject? Is that for one 1.5 hour session, presumably in a hall with lots of other people? Have a look at this. You could get 8/9 individual tutorials for the same cost.

Unless, of course, there are some serious typing errors on the site. If so it might indicate what kind of a half baked plan it was.

jackelle

that's exactly the same price as griffith and the rest of the fe1 courses available so while it might not be any better it's not any worse than anything else that's out there.

Font22

its nearly exactly the same timetable too! anyone know if there is parking available?

tomcosgrave

There must be a story here - I was registering for my second year at GCD last week and saw Burke around the place. So either their departure is sudden, or else GCD have known for a while and were keeping it quiet in the run up to the start of term! I'd expect the latter to be honest, you can't just set up a college like this on the fly and expect to have any credibility.

Incidentally, the staff list for the law school is -

* Philip Burke (Equity & Trusts)
* Val Corbett (Law of Torts & Contract Law)
* Stephen Dowling (Company Law)
* Mark Cockerill (Criminal Law & Company Law)
* Anthony Lowry (EU Law)
* Anastasia Ward (Property Law)
* Mark O’Riordan (Constitutional Law)

- every lecturer here, bar one, I think, is formerly with GCD and appears to have just left before the start of the 2007/2008 academic year. I hope for the sake of GCD students like me that GCD courses are not undermined!

Tom Young

Maybe not.They might well be still on the staff. Practicing barristers are allowed to work as educators and many work amongst a number of institutions.

I'd imagine the only story is that they are working for more than one institution.

aphex™

Tom Young wrote:

Maybe not.They might well be still on the staff. Practicing barristers are allowed to work as educators and many work amongst a number of institutions.

I'd imagine the only story is that they are working for more than one institution.

I doubt Corbett and Burke are still on the staff as they were heads of undergraduate and postgraduate schools respectively. Bit of a conflict of interest there if one of them ran a competitor.

If you mean the other lecturers then maybe.

Must have been hard to get all the course materials together. Griffith's handbooks were copyright.

Tom Young

Yeah, I don't actually know to be honest. Just speculating, I suspect your possibly right.

tomcosgrave

I did look at the staff list on the GCD website - no sign of Corbett or Burke and Ciaran Patton and Ciara Fitzgerald are listed as the new heads of the law school.
http://www.gcd.ie/index.jsp?1nID=93&2nID=106&3nID=115&nID=118

But some of the other staff do still seem to be there - there would be no conflict of interest for lecturers at more than one institution, of course.

superficies

Not all the manuals were copright - I think that equity and torts weren't. But anyway am sure they have plenty of money behind them to pay people to write new ones - hopefully with less unnecessary stuff in them than the griffith ones now. Wouldn't fancy being an undergrad in griffith this year with both of them gone and apparently Healy and deLondras gone as well but don't know where they are now - they arent on the list for this new place anyway.

Font22

De Londras has gone to UCC

Tom Young

Patton is a legend in his own lunch time.

RDMH

Ciaran is an excellent lecturer and I'm sure that there will be no problems with him running the ship. GCD was well known for having really good lecturers, I'm hoping that the replacements are as good as what has left.

dumbyearbook

Not meaning to drag this back up but now that these courses have started anyone have any viewpoints would be keen to hear from Undergrad law grads.

Ebony10000

I am actually going to Independent colleges now and went to Griffith for the last sitting and I must honestly say that Indepdendent colleges wins hands down.
The classes are much smaller and you get homework corrected much quicker. I went to Griffith last June and I am still to get homework back that I handed up in July.
A lot of the good lectures are now in Independent colleges and left Griffith and yes Val and Philip who are in my opinion one of the best lecturers griffith ever had are now in Indepedent colleges solely.
In my last sitting I passed all my fe-1s, even though I was 30 minutes late for company law and barely answered 3 questions in contract and I must say the main reasons I passed was because of the lecturers and 3 out of 4 of those lecturers I had in griffith, Philip, Mark and Stephen teach solely in Independent colleges now.
Font 22 in relation to parking you can get half price on pre-paid parking,so like if you buy a bundle of tickets for 50 euros you get it for 25 euros which is pretty handy because I use mine even when I dont go to college and just going shopping in the city centre.
The prices for griffith and independent colleges are exactely the same but you get better quality for your money in independent collges because the classes are smaller and most importantly u get homework back and I am actually recommending Indepedent colleges to my friends instead of griffith.
Also I like the name Independent colleges, it goes with the whole motif because O'Reily owns the college and also owns Independent newspapers.
Anyways enough with my ranting and enough with my procastination,back to the study,

Good luck everyone with the exams:)

BehindTheScenes

You must be on good commission:D

Planxty

how the hell could u be 30mins late for ur fe1 exam haha

Ebony10000

trust me it's not a mistake i will make again.it was my 1st fe-1 exam so i just didnt gauge the distance properly from my house to the RDS and trafiic was really bad.by the time i sat down at my desk it was 10.Still worked out ok though,answered 4 questions in my opinion which where ok and then my 5th question was literally coping out art 80 from the companies law act and i got 55% so i cant really complain.

Good luck with the exams everyone:)

tomcosgrave

RDMH wrote: »

Ciaran is an excellent lecturer and I'm sure that there will be no problems with him running the ship. GCD was well known for having really good lecturers, I'm hoping that the replacements are as good as what has left.

Well, he ain't running it any more, it would seem - David Langwallner is in charge for the year!
http://www.gcd.ie/index.jsp?1nID=106&pID=115&nID=118

I had Patton for my Criminal Law (part time) in 2007/2008 and he was a very, very hard marker (hardest in GCD, I'd say, and I heard the Kings Inns students had it tough as well - he's not nicknamed "The Butcher" for nothing, it would seem!). I had to repeat Criminal I and the result is due tomorrow. Ciaran was a good lecturer - but not a great teacher, in my humble opinion and not particularly approachable either.

Surion

tomcosgrave wrote: »

I had to repeat Criminal I and the result is due tomorrow. Ciaran was a good lecturer - but not a great teacher, in my humble opinion and not particularly approachable either.

Well...how did you do???

tomcosgrave

Surion wrote: »

Well...how did you do???

I passed it, thankfully!

ireland1italy0

tomcosgrave wrote: »

Well, he ain't running it any more, it would seem - David Langwallner is in charge for the year!
http://www.gcd.ie/index.jsp?1nID=106&pID=115&nID=118.

I think thats the role for the head of the whole thing. Brian Foley is the one overseeing the FE1 courses - at least that's the sense I get from the emails from GCD. Had him in constitutional and contract this year.

EdgarAllenPoo

I see that Independent now offer a law degree, tis a shame Corbett and Burke didn't stick with GCD. The quality of lectures just isn't the same.

ireland1italy0

I see that Independent now offer a law degree, tis a shame Corbett and Burke didn't stick with GCD. The quality of lectures just isn't the same.

Which way around do you mean that?!!!! I must be as think as I drunk you are.

EdgarAllenPoo

I mean what's left to fill the gap since they left isn't as good.

GabiP

It looks the biz but I'd be concerned about how their qualifications are received. i.e. would'nt a Law course at blackhall place be deemed as "The realdeal"? It's far cheaper for one thing, that family law course in Blackhall Place is €2100, whereas is't only €890 something in Independant college hmmm. I asked a question last week on this very course in Family Law in Blackhall Place, I received not 1 reply so far. Has anyone here any advice or experience of it? What's your own opinion on it Op?

tomcosgrave

Well, I went into GCD yesterday for the start of the year. Ciaran Patton has left - he's gone to Independent Colleges.