New Academic Calendar 2014/15

stephen812

Anyone have an opinion on the new academic year - loosing a weeks holidays at Christmas and exams before and after the Christmas break. Pro's and con's?


Message from Director of Academic Affairs and Registrar:

"I am pleased to confirm that following a detailed consultation process with students and staff, a new DIT Academic Calendar has been agreed for 2014/2015.

While we continue to have 2 x 15 week semesters, the new calendar will greatly facilitate semesterised modularised programmes.

Please note the following significant changes:

- All supplemental exams will take place in August 2014 enabling continuing students to receive their results prior to resuming classes.
- Examinations at the end of Semester 1 may take place before or after the Christmas break. Your programme handbook (or equivalent) will specify which applies to you.
- In 2015 there will be more time available at the end of Semester 2 to allow for feedback and appeals.
- Shorter break at Christmas 2014 – i.e., from 22nd December to 5th January 2015
- Earlier start date for Semester 2 on 26th January 2015.
- Either teaching or assessment may take place in the last three weeks of each semester.

If you have any queries as to how your programme will operate under the new calendar, please contact your School."

sdanseo

Granted this year is my last, but I wouldn't see any major issue with that. The only "problem" is exams before Christmas, and depending on how much of a sponge you are that can be an advantage. Plus, stuff is fresh.

Rasmus

Yes I have issues with it. The change in schedule means that repeat exams (if necessary) will start on August 18th, as opposed to the usual first week of September. This curbs summer plans which I have already paid for and I think we should have been consulted.

scano.ie

Rasmus wrote: »

Yes I have issues with it. The change in schedule means that repeat exams (if necessary) will start on August 18th, as opposed to the usual first week of September. This curbs summer plans which I have already paid for and I think we should have been consulted.

No issue with the change but agree with Rasmus about the repeats. This change should only be brought into effect for the exams taken during the 14/15 term

stephen812

This years repeats will start on Monday 18th August according to the exams office, so anyone that may have planned travel over the summer months will be majorly inconvenienced by the change in structure.

Don't think many people would have a problem with the new layout if the repeats could be kept at their normal time (ie early Sept) and then from the summer of 2015 switch them to starting them in mid-August.

JumpShivers

Thank god the Review Weeks weren't scrapped!

No problem with it, the exams before and after Christmas though is good....

ekellyie

Have the review weeks changed?

BonkeyDonker

ekellyie wrote: »

Have the review weeks changed?

You can find the new academic calendar here - http://www.dit.ie/media/academicaffairs/DIT-Academic-calendar-2014-15.pdf

Review weeks are not on it, but would usually be week 6. The one issue I can see is the possible lack of a break between the end of the semester and the exams.

Even this year I know a few course where their last assignments were due today, and their first exam is Tuesday/Wednesday.

stephen812

The DITSU released this statement earlier today on their website:


"Student Council Speaks loudly & clearly on Academic Calender Decision

May 09, 2014

DIT Students’ Union’s Student Council met for an emergency meeting on Tuesday, at which Dr. Michael Mulvey, Director of Academic Affairs and Registrar presented on the new Academic Calendar. A decision was recently taken to move to a new structure, a decision which by DIT’s own admission was ‘executive’. In circumstances where DIT Students’ Union had made the position of the student body (in particular, relating to the scheduling of examinations) absolutely clear, DITSU VP Education Rebecca Dempsey commented:

“This decision has caused enormous upset among the student body and as their representatives who had bought into a process of consultation in good faith, we are naturally disappointed with the way in which SLT appears to have simply made a decision on a whim. Students and staff on the ground feel let down by this and as the people who live the calendar’s structures every day, we hope that our concerns at this point are noted and we now ask that they are acted upon accordingly.”

Despite engaging in a lengthy process and establishing a working group for all stakeholders, DIT’s cohort of Directors took the collective decision to make the changes. The meeting put it to Dr. Mulvey that merely having a couple of student representatives in a room for ‘consultation’ does not in any way, shape or form equate to student approval and that Student Council should have been consulted before any such decision was made. Dempsey continued to say:

"The new academic calendar is, according to DIT, a stepping stone to moving written examinations to be held before the Christmas period. The discussions around a new academic "student friendly" calendar have been ongoing for many years. Since July 1st, we as the student representative body have always relayed t students’ comments, thoughts and opinions to this group, we have always been a part of the process but this calendar does not represent the thoughts or opinions of DIT students.”

A vast number of practical issues were outlined by Student Council, not all of which were confined to the classroom and most of which had not been considered by the Institute. Many students who had never attended a Student Council meeting before turned up to air views on behalf of their class and a prolonged session of questions and answers, the discussion closed with Student Council urging Dr. Mulvey to have DIT’s Senior Leadership Team reverse the decision made."

Exams before and after Christmas is madness. Part-time students haven't been thought about at all here; how are we supposed to get time off work for study leave in the run up to Christmas - the busiest time of the year for a lot of companies.

Dwaegon

Mulvey was a right weasel at that meeting. Dodged every question he was asked, and gave no information about how this benefits the students, because it does no such thing.

The most worrying factor is that you will EITHER have exams the week before or the week after the break. The exams will not be spread over the two weeks. As someone who had 6 exams this year after 1st semester, this is really bad! You could have two exams in the one day, or a full run of five in a week, without any break between the lecturing weeks and the exam week. Some students will have the extra week before xmas, and they MAY get seasonal work over the break, but those of us who have to do exams the week before will probably not be so lucky.

J1s, trips away, working over the summer, having to arrange moving back to Dublin(especially for international students). Moving the repeat exams to mid August without warning has the potential to affect students in a really negative manner. This will drive potential DIT students away from DIT.

A college experience comes as a package deal, and this is one aspect of the DIT package that has the potential to damage students both financially and academically. As I'm heading into final year, there's not much I can do in this regard, but if I were filling out my CAO, unless DIT offered me a course I wanted that I could not get anywhere else, I would look elsewhere.

stephen812

I didn't realise that a persons exams will now be either before Christmas or after Christmas, I just presumed that they would be split over pre- and post-Christmas periods.

I'm also heading into 4th year in September and normally we have 6 exams in January (Mon, Wed, Fri of the first week, and again Mon, Wed, Fri of the second week).

If the change means we will now have 6 exams over 5 days before the Christmas break that will be a serious bummer.

Dwaegon

stephen812 wrote: »

I didn't realise that a persons exams will now be either before Christmas or after Christmas, I just presumed that they would be split over pre- and post-Christmas periods.

I'm also heading into 4th year in September and normally we have 6 exams in January (Mon, Wed, Fri of the first week, and again Mon, Wed, Fri of the second week).

If the change means we will now have 6 exams over 5 days before the Christmas break that will be a serious bummer.

I brought this point to his attention, as I had 6 exams spread over two weeks last semester, and especially with final year looming this was the completely wrong decision to make. He avoided the point and basically told us to deal with it. I told him that he is treating the students sitting exams this year were essentially guinea pigs for this new calendar, and that compressing exams into a single week would negatively affect exam results, stress levels of students, and the opportunity for part-time work over the busy pre-xmas period. His opinion is that if the calendar does not work this year, they will go back and look at it to see what can be done.

Realistically this cannot be examined until the end of the academic year, i.e. summer 2015. As he said that it's too late at THIS stage to change the calendar, we can assume that this will be the academic calendar for the next two academic years.

The group making this decision have been doing so since 2009, and it has only been implemented in the last month. Only 6% of students surveyed said they wanted this as the preferred option for exam timetabling. DIT does not give a damn about the students in this regard.

This academic calendar was brought in with the interests of DIT staff in mind and nobody else.

gauchesnell

hey

you are wrong to assume that the academic calendar has been brought in with staff in mind. There is serious opposition to this calendar and there are various legal matters in play which I wont go into here. It is wrong to tar all DIT staff with the work of one person....and I mean one person. Agreement has not been reached.

The majority of staff (both academic and admin) are aware of the serious implications of this calendar.

Dwaegon

gauchesnell wrote: »

you are wrong to assume that the academic calendar has been brought in with staff in mind. There is serious opposition to this calendar and there are various legal matters in play which I wont go into here. It is wrong to tar all DIT staff with the work of one person....and I mean one person. Agreement has not been reached.

The majority of staff (both academic and admin) are aware of the serious implications of this calendar.

Haddington Road did not in any way need to affect the exams, only the number of weeks in each semester.

I believe you are right, that many (probably a good majority) of the staff are opposed to the new calendar. I personally know a large number of staff(both admin and lecturing) who would want nothing but the best for students.

What Mulvey was trying to convey at the meeting was that DIT staff are largely in support of the calendar and are of the mind that this is what's best for everyone. I'm sure that this is complete bull and he's trying to push the blame onto the institution, rather than taking the heat himself.

Simple fact is that Senior Leadership Team is made up of 22 members, 2 of which are student reps. With student reps outnumbered 10 to 1, he's doing this fairly easily. I think anyone looking at the situation is well aware that he is the puppet master.

Aard

What's his agenda? Why was it decided to change the calendar? If it ain't broke don't fix it...

Dwaegon

Aard wrote: »

What's his agenda? Why was it decided to change the calendar? If it ain't broke don't fix it...

Basically they spent 5 years examining the calendar, using thousands of euro worth of wages. Basically it was either make any change, or look like complete idiots. He literally said at the meeting "a decision had to be made".

Apparently a committee that makes the wrong change trying to do something new is better than a committee that changes nothing when the current system is, while not ideal, at least usable.