Heritage Studies

Jo O

Can anyone tell me what Heritage Studies is like in GMIT???

LovexxLife

Hi, wondering is there anyone on here that knows anything about this course?

elcy86

I'm going into my second year in this course now!! ... It's so good! In first year you do Heritage Studies, History, Geog, Linguistics, Comunications, Language and then Irish Literature, IT and Rural field course!

For the rural field course you get to go away for a week which was some laugh!

The leaturers are so nice too, Paul for heritage, John for history and Killian for Geog

Anything ya want to know in particular?

LovexxLife

Would it be like really early history you do mainly? So the course is like a mix of subjects? Is there anything really hard on the course?what the career opportunities are like?

elcy86

We did from 400-1600 .. everything really is fairly grand, History can be hard but if your interested you'l get on grand! Mm Irish Lit is alot of reading and Linguistics is a bit hard cause of the way Briain teaches but your allowed bring books into those exams.. the worst is like presentations and essays and that.. theres no exam for heritage or geog just projects ... Im not really sure, Im going to go on to teaching but I'd say ya can become like an Archeologist, or work for Museums or be a Geologist

LovexxLife

Aw cool, well like im doing history at higher level for my leavin cert. Is the linguistics like the german language french etc. stuff? So like it more continous assesment throughout the year? Do you know much about the add-on the level 8 heritage studies, is hard to get onto that? I wouldnt be mad on the idea of presentations cos like not mad on like speaking in big groups of people but say i get use to it over time.

Thanks for all your replies

xo.mary

The course sounds soo good, can't wait

banshee_bones

Since its a Batchelor of Arts its basically an Arts degree and unlike NUIG where you are limiting yourself to graduate with two subjects you continually do about 6 or 7 every year in Heritage.
The DTP (Desktop Publishing) can be tough as the class isnt well structured to suit beginners and advanced your all thrown in together.

All the lecturers are the most helpful people you will ever meet. So when you finish the four years you can go on do do Masters in Archaeology, Rural and Urban Planning, Geography, Museum Studies, careers in the Civil Service, HDip, etc Opportunities for you are limitless.

Best of Luck to all of you starting I really hope you enjoy it.

xo.mary

Can someone please tell me, do you just do one language or do you do a few of them?

elcy86

No you only do one language either Irish, French, German or Spanish!

Also Lovelife, Linguistics isn't the language class, its the study of language like where language came from and sayings and things like that, and the english we speak today and that.

banshee_bones

I would also like to point out that you have the option of dropping the language in third year to take a business/enterprise module if you so wish.

xo.mary

elcy86 wrote: »

No you only do one language either Irish, French, German or Spanish!

Phewwwww. Thanks

LovexxLife

elcy86 wrote: »

Also Lovelife, Linguistics isn't the language class, its the study of language like where language came from and sayings and things like that, and the english we speak today and that.

Ah right cool, thanks. It sounds kinda interesting.

seanhowley

can anyone tell me about heritage studies at gmit?

banshee_bones

What do you want to know that hasnt been covered in this thread and/or in the online prospectus?



Also are you referring to Heritage Studies in the Galway campus or Castlebar? because they are two different styled courses.

seanhowley

Im referring to galway campus, just wondering whats the lay out of the coarse like, is it hard? lot of work? what are the timetables like etc.

kippy

Can anyone tell me what jobs people tend to get coming out of this degree and would anyone have any idea of the success rates for people getting jobs out of this course?
Brother is looking into this course and I have to say I am skeptical as to its value in looking for a job.

xo.mary

kippy wrote: »

Can anyone tell me what jobs people tend to get coming out of this degree and would anyone have any idea of the success rates for people getting jobs out of this course?
Brother is looking into this course and I have to say I am skeptical as to its value in looking for a job.

It's essentially a BA in history and geography (I think, I've heard 2 different stories), so it's pretty much the same as any arts degree. But because there are so many aspects - archaeology, folklore, languages, you can do further studies in those and become what ever you want!

seanhowley wrote: »

Im referring to galway campus, just wondering whats the lay out of the coarse like, is it hard? lot of work? what are the timetables like etc.

There's 6 classes/semester and so far for me (I've just finished 2nd year) it's been 3 exams/3 CA. It's not that hard, but there is a quite a bit of continuous assessment involved, especially in first year, so if you keep on top of that, you'll pass no bother. Nothing too demanding though! It's about 15-18 hours a week.

kippy

xo.mary wrote: »

It's essentially a BA in history and geography (I think, I've heard 2 different stories), so it's pretty much the same as any arts degree. But because there are so many aspects - archaeology, folklore, languages, you can do further studies in those and become what ever you want!

Like what?
And how long for the further studies..........

banshee_bones

You have an option to do a B.A (ord) level 7 or continue to do the add on year and get a B.A (Hons) level 8. Lots of graduates from that have gone on to do Masters in other universities in various different subjects, or you could do a Hdip

seanhowley

o right ok, and what are the lectures like, are they long, how many people do be in lectures?

perfectisthe

Sean and Kippy, there's more information on Heritage studies in this thread: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055792271.

Sean - What are the lectures like?! That's a fairly broad question Sean, they're fairly typical Arts lectures, one to two hours long (although I remember a particularly gruelling three hour history lecture in 2nd year).

In terms of class numbers, my year started with about 55 people and finished with about 36-37.

Kippy - Job prospects are exactly the same as any other Arts degree, i.e fairly bleak at the moment, but, like xo.mary said, the fact that the course is so broad gives you quite a lot of options for postgraduate studies. This is probably the course's main strenght, and I'd argue that due to the dissertation, and the emphasis on self-directed learning and research in that module, that it prepares you for postgraduate work in a far better fashion than an NUI Arts degree.

Can a current heritage studies student answer a question for me - Has John Tunney been in College for the last month or two? I was in contact with him but he fairly abruptly stopped answering emails. He missed a fair bit of time with health problems when I was in GMIT and I'm wondering if this was the case again?

seanhowley

oh right ok thanks, so in terms of the college that would big class?

xo.mary

perfectisthe wrote: »

Can a current heritage studies student answer a question for me - Has John Tunney been in College for the last month or two? I was in contact with him but he fairly abruptly stopped answering emails. He missed a fair bit of time with health problems when I was in GMIT and I'm wondering if this was the case again?

He missed quite a bit last year as well when I had him, but I haven't heard anything about him being out this year, and he's been around recently afaik.

perfectisthe

Thanks Mary.

seanhowley

what kind of history would you be learning about, would there be topics on 1916 rising and world war 2 and other topics you would have learned for the leaving cert?

perfectisthe

It's mainly Irish history Sean, covering the period 400 - present day, apart from a modern international history module in 2nd year. It's twelve years since I did leaving cert history, but, from what I remember, the two are very different.

Third level history is more about understanding events and interpreting their meanings than just ****ting a bunch of dates on to a page. In 4th year for example, you'll study historiography, which is the study of the process of how history is recorded - the history of history if you will. It's really really interesting and it was my favourite subject from day one, in fact I'm starting my 2nd history postgrad in September!

It's a good course overall Sean, but, like all arts degrees, you have to understand that it's fairly difficult to just walk into a job afterwards - few arts graduates end up in employment that has much to do with their degree. This is particularly true nowadays when the traditional heritage areas of employment - civil service, teaching, and tourism, are all on their last legs. You will more than likely have to do some kind of postgrad after your degreee to specialise. I still think it's an extremely useful course, and, as I think I've said on this thread before, I think it's better than most university arts degrees (which I've had some experience with) - the language, IT, and business modules make it more practical, but it still retains the core skills that all arts degrees teach.

Hope you can figure out what you want to do, don't put too much pressure on yourself, I'm thirty and it's only in the last two years that I've gained any kind of idea as to what I want to do with myself!

MayoArsehole

It is not a good course to find work out of, I'm still stuck in Penneys 4 years later! most had less chance of getting a job with Heritage Studies on their CV