BA Evening Degree

joxer05

Hi everyone, my mum is thinking of starting the BA Evening programme in Archaeology next year. She is trying to find out as much information about the course as possible, so I said I'd throw a couple of her questions up here to see could anyone help. Thanks!

BA Evening Programme - Archaeology:

1. How many students are admitted each year?
2. Is there a waiting list?
3. What are fees?
4. Are there grants available and what are the conditions for these grants?
5. Is there a lot of work involved?
6. How many hours?
7. Is there any field work (i.e. digs)?
8. What is the first year book list?

Thanks again!

weebelly

Best advice is to just contact the School of Archaeology directly (archaeology@ucd.ie), to check that it will be offered next year which may not be the case (check out http://www.ucd.ie/acshs/prospective_students.html).

mdebets

I just finished my third year in the Evening BA studying Archaeology and Classics, so I try to answer your questions as best as I can.
However, the Evening BA, or better the Part-time BA as they call it now, is going to change totally from the next academic year, so I add as much of the new BA as I know it.
For further questions, she can contact John O'Neill in the School of Archaeology or have a look here for some general information about the Part-Time BA.

First thing is that there are 3 different programs she might attend
1) Part-time Day or Evening Degree
she has to take another subject for 3 years and a 3rd subject for 1 year.
The different between the day and evening (as far as I understand it, but that is all new, so it might all change) is that she has a more restricted choice in the evenings, but i think she can also take some curses during the day. The evening also restricts her to a joint major.

2) Higher-Diploma
The same courses as the Evening BA, for 3 years, but she needs no 2nd and 3rd subject. She must however already have a primary degree.

3) Interest course
Different from 1and 2, just for interest. I think they have the possibility of some sort of degree at the end, but I'm not too sure about that.
Much cheaper then 1 and 2

Now to your questions
1) I don't think there is a limit. We were around 15. Other courses have much larger classes, so there shouldn't be a problem.

2) no

3) depends on many modules you take and how much they charge per module (I'm not quite sure how that works in the future, but we had to do the full number per year and couldn't spread one academic year over several physical years). If I remember correctly last year was around 1,500€ per subject per semester (it was around this figure, I just can't remember the exact amount any more), which would make it around 11-12,000€ for the full degree (you have to pay, no chance for free fees unfortunately).

4) I don't know, but I don't think so. She should talk to the Mature Student Advisor (I'm not quite sure who is it now. It used to be Ronan Murphy, but the UCD webpage now say it's Fiona Tuite, but then the overview points back to Ronan)

5) It depends. I basically had no free time for the last 3 years. But I was taking 2 subjects per year (most student take only one, but then it takes 7 instead of 4 years) and wanted to get at least a 2.1. Others in my course did much less works. So it depends on what you want to get out of it.

6) It was 2 evenings with 2 to 2.5 hours lectures each week, but I think they want to increase this to 3 hours. In third year there was also either a dissertation (which was the equivalent of 2 evening of lectures), or the fieldschool, which was 2 weeks in the summer, which had to be done in addition to the 2 evenings a week. I'm not quite sure how they do it next year, as that seemed to be a little bit much and looked like it was just a way out of re-organising the whole course. They did 2nd and 3rd year for the first time in the evening and 2nd year had different credits attached to the module then the day students (basically we did less courses for the same amount of credits).

7) In 1st year we had a visit to Tara and Melinfont with some basic surveying and a visit to the National Museum with a short workbook.
In 2nd year we visited Kilmainham Gaol and did a sort workbook (so not much).
in 3rd year we had a course surveying techniques and some practical surveying (no fancy gadgets, just tape and pen and paper). This also contained a group survey of a small monument, which was marked.
There is the possibility to attend the Summer Fieldschool in the Wicklow Mountains (2 weeks in August) between 2nd and 3rd or after 3rd (if you are not finished with your degree after the 3rd year archaeology).
There might also be the possibility to do the workplacement course, that is offered during the day (I'm not sure how it will be handled in the future with taking some day courses if you are an evening student, but I could only do it in 3rd year, what had to do with UCD offering this option only from last year on). If you can take the workplacement course, you can either go on a workplacement in one of the archaeological companies in Ireland, or also go on the UCD excavation in Crete.

8) I can't help you with this, as I don't know the courses from next year and they changed considerable from my 1st year to the last 1st year.
One could gues however would be Barry Raftery's Pagan Celtic Ireland and Gabriel Cooney's Landscapes of Neolithic Ireland.

I hope I helped you a little bit with this information.

Pride Fighter

As far as I know the part-time degree is 4 years, taking 8 classes a year (full time do 12 per year). Each school offers different courses for part time students. Id recommend that your mum takes Classics alongside Archaeology as you have to take another subject, maybe even 2 more for first year but I am not sure. Classics is a nice subject, similar to Archaeology (they have Archaeology classes in Classics) as well as History, Literature, Culture, Society, Art, Mythology and to a certain degree Linguistics.
About fees I am really not sure but if your ma is eligible for a grant then there will more than likely be none.
Good luck to you and your mum.
Education at any age is a positive thing.

mdebets

Part-time can be between 4 and 7 years (4 if you take 2 subjects per year and your third first year subject in year 4, 7 if you take 1 subject per year).
Classics is a very nice subject, but the Archaeology classes are more art history then archaeology