Oscail : Bachelor of Arts (Hons)

Rimbaud

Hi there - does anyone have any opinions on this BA?
I'm not sure how well respected or how much weight a BA carries in comparison to Discipline specific degree's? - but it seems like a good option to take if i wanted to pursue a Masters in something more specific to my interests after.

At the moment i don't have access to do a full time degree or even a part time degree here in Cork. Mary Immaculate in limerick had a Distance learning Post graduate Diploma in Development Education (ideal for me) but they are not running that anymore i was told.

http://www.oscail.ie/ba.php

Bachelor of Arts (Hons)

Any opinions on this? Or is there better distance learning degree courses in the area of Education or Social/Development Education?
I'd hope to do a human rights related masters in NUI after.
thanks,
Eamonn

Freiheit

I'd choose the Open University if I was you, as Oscail degrees are not that well respected. I did some modules with them and not that well thought of elsewhere, part of the programme was somewhat out of date and numbers falling there in recent years.

AvaKinder

i'm currently doing the oscail course, and while it does have its problems its an enjoyable course. Plus the degree is from DCU and plenty of people have gone on to do postgrad work in place like Trinity so it cant be that badly thought of.

i havent encountered any problems any worse than those i came across in full time education

too tired for punctuation

Freiheit

It probably depends on the subjects, but the Psychology degree is not recognised by the main irish Psychological body, the British equivilant consider Oscail degree holders on a 'case by case basis'. Oscail is ok but definitely inferior, from my experience to the Open University. I studied Psychology only with Oscail.

pathway33

This is what I heard. The Information Technology degree is out of date and gets Oscail a bad name which filters through to its BA degree.

BA DEGREE

The psychology aspect of the Oscail degree is outdated.

Some sociology modules are badly presented.

The english and history modules are magnificent.

No information on philosophy.

The feedback from tutors is excellent, far better than in a conventional full-time degree.

The BA is fully recognised by the teaching council of ireland to progress to the PGDE and fully qualify as a secondary teacher, providing you do enough modules of english and/or history and/or sociology. So they think it's fine.

That's just the opinion of a few though

WexCan

I haven't heard many good things about Oscail, though kudos to them for offering uni-level distance learning in Ireland, which isn't exactly a saturated market.

Seems the issues are subject-specific though, from reading the posts above. At the end of the day, a degree is a degree and in many walks of life that's all that counts.

I can vouch for the Open University being wonderful in a lot of ways, but there's always cost to consider.

eth0_

WexCan wrote: »

At the end of the day, a degree is a degree and in many walks of life that's all that counts.

I disagree with that. There are many uni's known for having rather poor degrees in certain subjects, churning out poorly educated graduates, and lots of employers are aware of this.

DCU itself has a good name but Oscail DOESN'T, and bizarrely they don't seem too bothered about addressing this.

I am biased as i'm in the final months of my OU degree, but I wholeheartedly recommend the OU. Their degrees are very well respected, great student support (online communities etc), course content is very regularly updated, they have a great reputation for research etc.

claire h

Have never heard anything negative about the Oscail BA, though I have heard some of those comments about the IT degree, so I think it may be a case of 'tarred by association'.

Freiheit

My Psychology lecturer actually quit half way through the year as she said she had difficulty getting paid by Oscail...her abscence left a gap. Psychologywise Oscail is rated poorly by other Universities.

Agent J

This thread has reminded me that i need to start thinking about my options once i finish the IT diploma.

Or the "Business,Electronics,Pyschology with a smattering of IT" as someone else put it.

paloma

Can those criticising Oscail be more specific. Where exactly is the BA degree not well respected? Where exactly does Oscail not have a good name? I am studying for the BA with Oscail at the moment.
For reference- The academic liaison board of Oscail includes members from Trinity, UCC, UL, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, DCU and Queens University, Belfast. The course team in each of the subjects are from these universities. The degree is awarded through DCU, NUI Maynooth, Trinity, UCC, NUI Galway and UL. The degree is recognised by the teaching council.

Freiheit

The Open University do not 'weight' it highly when applying for Postgarduates in Psychology. The Psychological Society of Ireland, the main Psychological body in Ireland does not recognise it.