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Higher Diploma in Computing

Please advise

Hi all,

I am seriously considering doing the Higher Diploma in Computing (part-time 1.5 year) in Griffith College and would appreciate some feedback from people who have completed this course or from techies who have an opinion on the modules offered. I am a graduate from UCD and Smurfit Business School but would like to get a more in depth understanding in this area.

Modules:

Computer Programming
Relational Databases
Computer Architecture and Organisation
Programming and Data Structures
Discrete Mathematics
Data Communication and Networks
Object Orientated Development
HCI and GUI Programming
Operating System Design
Software Engineering for Web Applications

Please advise

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fl4pj4ck

pick a real/proper college, dunno much about Cork/Dublin, but the Limerick one is a joke, see my thoughts

Please advise

Thanks fl4pj4ck. I am speaking about Griffith College Dublin, but I hope that your experience of Limerick isn't the same scenario in Dublin. I really don't mind what college I attend as I already have an undergrad and a Masters. I am more concerned about course content.

Does anybody have any experience of this Higher Diploma in Computing in GCD? I am very interested to hear about people's experience of GCD Computer Science etc before I spend over 5k.

CruelCoin

Please advise wrote: »

Thanks fl4pj4ck. I am speaking about Griffith College Dublin, but I hope that your experience of Limerick isn't the same scenario in Dublin. I really don't mind what college I attend as I already have an undergrad and a Masters. I am more concerned about course content.

Does anybody have any experience of this Higher Diploma in Computing in GCD? I am very interested to hear about people's experience of GCD Computer Science etc before I spend over 5k.

8.1k for the entire course to be exact. It's €5400 per academic year.

I have a letter of offer for the same course witting in front of me, wondering the same. DCU was my preference for this type of course, but they cancelled it due to lack of numbers last year.

My brother went to Griffith for his degree, and he is fairly happy with the place. The computer labs used to be a pile of crap, but that has changed recently as the whole lot have been upgraded 2 years ago according to the department head i called. 2 years in still pushing on now, but should be ok.

Anyone with more info on this?

Stormchas3r

I recently graduated from GCD in the Higher Diploma in Computing course and I can highly recommend it.
I had no previous experience of IT and I hadn't studied for many years so I was apprehensive about undertaking the course. Most of the lecturers are first class(bar one, who I wouldn't imagine will be there this September).
The course is wide-ranging and intensive (I did it in one year), and I found the experience fulfilling.
I am now going on to study for a Masters.

Please advise

Thanks Stormchas3r. Did you find the course very difficult because you didn't have an IT background? Approx how many hours per week were you in lectures and how many hours did you spend studying outside of lectures? What is the IT dept like in Griffith?

Thanks.

Stormchas3r

No, I wouldn't say difficult, but it is necessary to discipline yourself to rigorously keep up with each stage of each different module.
The lectures took up about 17 hours per week (or two and a half full days), and I found that the rest of the week would be taken up with studying/assignments/tutorials. At certain stages of the course that would include weekends. For someone with a third level education it is certainly manageable.
The IT dept in Griffith is good. Most of the lecturers are very good. Equipment in the labs is fine, but I and most of my colleagues generally found it easier to work on our own laptops.

GCDGrad

If you are foreign student. Avoid this college at all cost.
No matter how much time and effort you put into your work, they will always label it as cheat.
Yes, there are people who will copy/paste from internet. But to put everyone into the same basket is a bit no.

Foreign students are top in their class all over the world but in Ireland they as seen as uneducated, filthy and lecturers won't even give you time.
Unless Griffith hires someone from 21st century as course director, who has some information about the world, avoid at all cost.

AVOID AVOID AVOID.

You deserve better.
Goto National College of Ireland (IFSC), or DCU, or any other college / uni.

Take it from someone who has witness this for over 4 years.

I did my first year in National College of Ireland and moved to GCD. BIGGGGGG MISTAKE.

The support structure in NCI was awesome.
My scores were all 90+.

While submitting my scores to GCD for transfer they looked at me twice with a doubtful face.
How could a foreign student get 99 in Maths and all others over 90.
Unbelievable...

My work was a low paid jobs. Saved all I earned. Never really went out or spent on items that I did not really need so as to pay my fees.
Studies till late at night. Did not go to sleep all night before the exam. And still I got labeled as a cheat.

How could a foreign guy, who rarely speaks in the class can submit a high end programming stuffs as Final Project.
The external examiner gave me well over 90. But the lecturer from Griffith awarded me 60. He looked at me, and put a number on my face instantly.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

I can give you 100's of such past case. Everyone keeps it quite so as not to upset the institution, but between friends and seniors/juniors, it is a well known fact.
You feel this won't happen to you too? Think again, i thought the same.

Also, the computer labs are running Dual Core's... joke.
The Air conditioner keeps breaking down and have spent days boiling myself in there.

They upgraded to MAC's few years ago. But are modified version that boots Windows 7.
Dead slow and keys will confuse you to death.

If you want to do anything, bring your own laptop.

College has FREE WiFi, but has strong firewall and all ports are blocked.
You can only run port 80. Not sure what they are trying to block. Any app can be modified to work on port 80, hence skipping the firewall rules.
This is very frustrating as few of the assignments requires you to access such remote ports for functionality.

The "IT support room" should be renamed to, "IT won't work".

Also, there is a big DNS filter groups. You won't be able to access few file transfer sites.
So, if you have uploaded your big Project on to a free file uploading website, then forget it.

TOILETS ARE FILTHY and SMELLY all the time.
The only good ones are in the restaurant that also is not services often.

You think you are going in there to learn. But you learn a lot more than you think you should.

Lecturers BEGGING for respect by shouting and screaming @ students is messed up.

It is the worst of the top level college in Dublin.
I will never recommend this college to anyone.

TimotiSt

(Please note, I work for the IT dept at Griffith; I'm not on Boards as an official rep. Also I'm a foreigner.)

Foreign issue: the head of the Computing faculty is from Pakistan, if you raise any such issues with him, he won't dismiss it. Also it's well known that we're recruiting from overseas, nobody in management will tolerate any racist/etc lecturers - if they know about it.

Computers: most Macs were deployed in last September, they dual-boot OSX and Win7. It's up to the lecturer to choose the OS for the class. We also have new Dells with Win7.

Firewall: true, we're trying to block p2p traffic as our internet uplink is a bit slow. The new link is installed, should go live after a few weeks testing, after that we'll allow more ports. If you need anything for academic reasons, just send an email to the helpdesk and it'll be opened.

DNS filter: we don't have any such thing. Please send an email to helpdesk with the domain/URL/anything, so we can check/fix it.

IT dept: unfortunately we don't have the manpower to deal with student laptop/tablet/smartphone/ipod/etc issues a lot. If it's an emergency (laptop crashed on assignment week), we try to help the best we can. We're not an official repair shop, so we prefer not to do stuff that'd void your warranty.

Toilets: totally agree, the W building is a disaster. I use the facilities in JS.

Tamas

GCDGrad

TimotiSt wrote: »

(Please note, I work for the IT dept at Griffith; I'm not on Boards as an official rep. Also I'm a foreigner.)

Foreign issue: the head of the Computing faculty is from Pakistan, if you raise any such issues with him, he won't dismiss it. Also it's well known that we're recruiting from overseas, nobody in management will tolerate any racist/etc lecturers - if they know about it.
Reply: Being a mature student, i am aware of what you mean by "the head of the Computing faculty is from Pakistan". Obama is president of America. That does not prove anything. Institute can employee foreign lecturers to make it look like a United Nation effort. But we all know the politics behind that. The "Change" never happens. Also, I am not complaining about Head of Computing Faculty. He only teach Masters Students. Problem is with way beyond one individual lecturer. It's the whole mental attitude towards foreign students.
Having said that, I can give you names of few lecturers who are simply awesome. Without whom I would have quit the college long ago.

Computers: most Macs were deployed in last September, they dual-boot OSX and Win7. It's up to the lecturer to choose the OS for the class. We also have new Dells with Win7.
Reply: The Macs were in the Game Development Room. Which is protected room and is only accessible by 4th year students for specific course. Few years later, they were transferred to class rooms.
They are faster than the Dual Cores in the W building computer lab's for sure.
Also when you say new Dells with Win7, you are not telling me they are of latest specs, they are not.

Firewall: true, we're trying to block p2p traffic as our internet uplink is a bit slow. The new link is installed, should go live after a few weeks testing, after that we'll allow more ports. If you need anything for academic reasons, just send an email to the helpdesk and it'll be opened.

Reply: I believe you are trying to be too nice here. You were upgrading the lines few years back as well. You keep saying you are upgrading for last few years. By now, you should have about 4-5 different lines from Internet providers.

About p2p traffics. If you knew what you were doing you would not need to block ports. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we can proxy through port 80 and enable p2p clients if we really needed to. I am not sure what you are blocking, the p2p app or productivity.

If I try open my mouth to suggest you something, I am aware that you will shut me down before I even say A.
We are students, what do we know eh!!

It's amazing how all ports are block inside your LAN as well. Don't tell me that is to protect from p2p again.

DNS filter: we don't have any such thing. Please send an email to helpdesk with the domain/URL/anything, so we can check/fix it.

Reply: You filter a lot of file sharing websites. I used to use those to upload and download files for projects. I had to pay for mobile internet to get it working on my Laptop every time I wanted to do something.

Also, requesting me to send email to helpdesk is a nice try. You cannot track and expel me, I am your past student.

IT dept: unfortunately we don't have the manpower to deal with student laptop/tablet/smartphone/ipod/etc issues a lot. If it's an emergency (laptop crashed on assignment week), we try to help the best we can. We're not an official repair shop, so we prefer not to do stuff that'd void your warranty.

Reply: I can understand that this might be one of the biggest issue that consumes most of your time in day to day activity.
But this only proves the obvious that college computers were untrustable to start with.

Toilets: totally agree, the W building is a disaster. I use the facilities in JS.

Reply: Looking for someone who will not just agree that it is a disaster, but rather go do something about it.

Tamas

I am not sure why you replied, but you did and i am grateful for that. But again, I have heard all the things you have said above several hundred times over the 4 years that I spent there.

There were few very good lecturers in there, but I heard they left recently and I cannot recommend this college to anyone.
This is not just my personal view.

Brewie

I completed this course recently. To point out the fee for the 3 years was 5400€ not the €8,100 mentioned above.

Not that this should be relevent, but to rule out the Irish/Foreign bullsh*t mentioned above I am Irish.

I can honestly say I have never attended or taken part in any organised education service/facility which was so poorly run in my life. I will list out a few reasons for you.

The head of the computer dept was a nightmare to deal with. My class had alot of issues which form part of this list and any dealings I had with the dept head were simply a waste of effort and time. When there was a meeting I was fobbed off and told not to worry, it will be fixed. On one occasion when I brought a number of complaints to him I was literally told, and I quote "Thank you for raising these problems, it means we can sort out the issues for the next intake". This was when I was in semester 1.
The course head wasnt much helpeither. Passed the buck straight on to the head of dept.
The lecturers in general were terrible. 4 of the lecturers I had the "pleasure" of been taught by were shockinging. 2 of these lecturers were men who had finished there masters and were working at their Phds. They had little to no lecturing experience, fair enough, you have to start somewhere but these guys couldnt handle the class asking questions and we were often talked down to by one in particular.
Another one of the 4 lecturers was actually a lecturer with his PHD/definitely not a student. From spending 4 years in college full time, another year part time and the time spent in GCD I have never encountered a lecturer who was so bad. If he was a product it would be returned as "not fit for purpose".
The computer labs themselves were generally unusable for 2 or 3 weeks per semester. One "lab" was in the Fashion area, with no projector and the room was divided in two by a pull over screen which did little to reduce noise from the other class. It certainly didnt reduce the dept head screaming at the other class in the room.
The lecturers were generally woeful at giving feedback/results to CA's. Often wouldn't have CA results until the end of semester exams were finished.
The college assigned us lecturers which were scheduled to go abraod for half the semester so we had more lecturers than subjects.

I will say that I taught by one of the best lecturers that I have ever encountered, Dr Abraham Campbell and thankfully I had him for probably the most difficult module.

Generally speaking the Computer Dept in GCD is a nightmare and after the experience I had in the place I just couldnt let this topic pass without posting. Go else where for your own sake.

Thankfully my class were a mature bunch in general with 3 or 4 of us that would not stand for any of the nonsense the college pedalled. We did stand up to the college and a number of the lecturers were surprised and took baby steps around us by the end of it, as a result the lecturers actually talked to us.

The best way to describe my experience with GCD Computer Science was a battle for 3 semesters.

Noisin

Hello
I am just reading this thread in horror, but thankfully I looked at it. I have accepted a place and have already registered in NCI higher Diploma in Computing starting Sept 2013 which is over 3 evenings and a Saturday, however yesterday I got a phone call from Griffith College to inform me that they have accepted me onto the same course they are offering which is the course this thread is speaking of. The timetable in Griffith suits me better as its just 2 full day, i'm commuting this really is the only reason I was looking to change, a personal reason. Griffith College were the slowest College to get back to me, they made a big deal about accepting me. Whereas the other 3 colleges offering the same course made their decision quickly and accepted me. My background is Construction however since 2012 I started a 4 year degree in IT where I completed first year in Software now i'm hoping to transfer onto this higher diploma. I have a degree in Construction Studies. As my initial background is not IT I need good support, help and good lectures to help me complete the higher diploma. Now I read this thread in doubt and horror, could anyone please advise me whether NCI would be a better college to complete the Higher Diploma. Up until recently I had intended on changing to Griffith College.
Please get back to me urgently.

CruelCoin

Quality of lecturers is largely subjective.

Some people will love lecturers, some will hate them.

I'm enrolled and paid up now for the part-time course H.Dip computing with griffith. Here's hoping for the best.

Noisin

Im just re-reading this thread again in complete horror. I just wondering where did 'please advise' decide to do the course in the end. I feel sorry for Brewie and GCDGrad sound like it was a bit of a joke. I'm thinking of staying put and doing the course in NCI regardless of my circumstances and my lengthy compute as I don't think battling through 3 semesters is good enough when you reach a certain stage in life and you have high level or work experience already behind you. I have worked with professional people the last 20 years I wouldn't be impressed with a hap-hazard approach to the course. The reason i'm transferring to Dublin to do the Higher Diploma is to attain a higher standard and fast track onto a masters not to be a guinea pig!
Any advise would be appreciated!

Noisin

Stormchas3 I was wondering could I either email you directly or could you pm me your mobile number and I would give you a call about the Higher Diploma in Griffith as I would greatly appreciate speaking to someone who did the course in Griffith. I can not pm you as I do not have 20 posts up as I have only recently joined boards but could you pm me your email or a phone number. thanks

CruelCoin

Noisin wrote: »

Im just re-reading this thread again in complete horror. I just wondering where did 'please advise' decide to do the course in the end. I feel sorry for Brewie and GCDGrad sound like it was a bit of a joke. I'm thinking of staying put and doing the course in NCI regardless of my circumstances and my lengthy compute as I don't think battling through 3 semesters is good enough when you reach a certain stage in life and you have high level or work experience already behind you. I have worked with professional people the last 20 years I wouldn't be impressed with a hap-hazard approach to the course. The reason i'm transferring to Dublin to do the Higher Diploma is to attain a higher standard and fast track onto a masters not to be a guinea pig!
Any advise would be appreciated!

You seem to have already made up your mind.

If the views of a few complete strangers is enough to cause you to doubt, then i'd say griffith isn't for you.

I would give the faculty head a call (i called him, very helpfull, and seemingly knowledgeable) to try get some more answers.

spurious

Noisin wrote: »

Im just re-reading this thread again in complete horror. I just wondering where did 'please advise' decide to do the course in the end. I feel sorry for Brewie and GCDGrad sound like it was a bit of a joke.

Mysteriously, GCDGrad never posted again on boards - I guess in his opinion, the job was done.
Please be wary of internet opinions, especially anything posted by low count posters who never post again.

mightyreds

I was in griffith for a year albeit not doing the h.dip but did a cert in computer science, thinking of going back for the higher cert. I found it good had 5 lecturers probably the same as an earlier poster 2 finishing there masters, they were teaching the 2 programming modules I never had a problem with them finished up their classes with a 98 and a 95 grade.

As stated earlier I had Dr Abraham campbell excellent lecturer bit of a genius too very knowledgeable.

But my 2 older lecturers were a little tougher to learn from they were my worst 2 results in my modules but still got Bs but I had to an extra lot of work myself at home more than any other modules.

overall I enjoyed the year buildings are fairly old some of the toilets poor, the labs are fine new computers in them computer room in the w building could do with a revamp though.

TimotiSt

(note: I work for GCD)

Just as an update, in the past 2 weeks we kitted out 2 new labs (open lab in W and a CAD lab) with shiny new Dell boxes, and we'll be deploying another 2 labs in the next week.
Also, the new ISP link is in place now at 400Mb. (I know, big universities have bigger pipes...)

If you voice your opinions here or in more official places, management will hear about it and try to improve things.

Tamas

CruelCoin

TimotiSt wrote: »

(note: I work for GCD)

Just as an update, in the past 2 weeks we kitted out 2 new labs (open lab in W and a CAD lab) with shiny new Dell boxes, and we'll be deploying another 2 labs in the next week.
Also, the new ISP link is in place now at 400Mb. (I know, big universities have bigger pipes...)

If you voice your opinions here or in more official places, management will hear about it and try to improve things.

Tamas

The labs is great to hear. That was my single biggest fear on griffith.

Sin City

Is this course recognised internationaly?
Could you go on and do a masters with a griffith cs hdip?

fl4pj4ck

it is, and yes, you could try. that's the only pro I've found during my time there

TimotiSt

(note: I work for GCD)

AFAIK all of our HDip courses are HETAC accredited.
Feel free to query the Admissions guys for the HETAC/Qualifax/somethingofficial ID of the course.

http://www.qualifax.ie/qf/QFPublic/?Mainsec=courses&Subsec=search_courses&CRAsort=&action=search&display=&CRT_ID=0&CSH_ID=18&PREV_CSH_ID=&AdvancedKeyword=&keywords_and_titles=title&all_or_any_words=all&full_or_part_words=full&FCT_ID=&FDM_ID=&keywords=&QUA_ID=0&CTP_ID=0&COL_ID=99&RES_ID=0&points=&CRS_CODE=&CRA_ID=0&ATT_ID=0&PRV_ID=0&COU_ID=0&DST_ID=0&firstpage=1&vStart=1&Idx=2&searchaction=current&Idx=1&searchaction=current

Irish institutions should accept a Level 8 HETAC award to enrol you to a Masters, international (mostly non-EU) acceptance may vary.

Tamas

Sin City

TimotiSt wrote: »

(note: I work for GCD)

AFAIK all of our HDip courses are HETAC accredited.
Feel free to query the Admissions guys for the HETAC/Qualifax/somethingofficial ID of the course.

http://www.qualifax.ie/qf/QFPublic/?Mainsec=courses&Subsec=search_courses&CRAsort=&action=search&display=&CRT_ID=0&CSH_ID=18&PREV_CSH_ID=&AdvancedKeyword=&keywords_and_titles=title&all_or_any_words=all&full_or_part_words=full&FCT_ID=&FDM_ID=&keywords=&QUA_ID=0&CTP_ID=0&COL_ID=99&RES_ID=0&points=&CRS_CODE=&CRA_ID=0&ATT_ID=0&PRV_ID=0&COU_ID=0&DST_ID=0&firstpage=1&vStart=1&Idx=2&searchaction=current&Idx=1&searchaction=current

Irish institutions should accept a Level 8 HETAC award to enrol you to a Masters, international (mostly non-EU) acceptance may vary.

Tamas

So I could do an open university masters

CruelCoin

Sin City wrote: »

Is this course recognised internationaly?
Could you go on and do a masters with a griffith cs hdip?

It's hetac, so yes, it's recognised.

You can go from this to a masters in griffith itself. 1 year part-time awarded at level 9 hetac, so again recognised.

TimotiSt

Sin City wrote: »

So I could do an open university masters

(note: I work for GCD)
(note2: I don't want to advertise GCD in this case)

I considered OpenU myself: is it just me, or they are a bit on the expensive side?

Tamas

Sin City

TimotiSt wrote: »

(note: I work for GCD)
(note2: I don't want to advertise GCD in this case)

I considered OpenU myself: is it just me, or they are a bit on the expensive side?

Tamas

everything is expensive these days
I was just asking if I completed a gcd hdip could I go further down the postgrad Road and do a masters in another institution?

johnc284

Hi All,

Just reading this thread now so this maybe a little off topic with regard to GCD but overall should be relevant I'm currently doing a H Dip in Computing in IT Sllgo finding it tough but enjoyable at present. With regards to previous graduates of the H Dip what are the job prospects and starting salary expectations. I'm learning C# as our programming language.

Thanks, John

aacm14

Hi

For anyone who has completed this course would you be able to tell me the following:

What is the timetable like?
How many exams did you have and was there much continuous assessment?

Thank you

CruelCoin

aacm14 wrote: »

Hi

For anyone who has completed this course would you be able to tell me the following:

What is the timetable like?
How many exams did you have and was there much continuous assessment?

Thank you

Hi,

I'm currently approaching the end of semester 2 of 3 in the part-time group.

The group was quite small, only 9 of us.

Each semester the timetable has been classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and each time the classes ran from 6:30pm until 9:30pm. 1 of the classes in semester 1 ran from 6pm to 9pm.

The breakdown in assessment has been exams worth 50-60% with continuous assessment making up the rest.

Several (roughly half of all) modules have needed weekly assignments. Almost every module has had a mid-term test and a major assignment.

Overall workload has been manageable but tough at times for the part-time evening group. Were you to do this course full-time you'd have no bother at all.

If you're looking for times you need to allow the following for each week of term:

9 hours for class
3-4 hours for main assignments
4-5 hours for continuous assessment.
+ x hours for study and exam prep.

Roy.

Scrappychimow

CruelCoin wrote: »

Hi,

I'm currently approaching the end of semester 2 of 3 in the part-time group.

The group was quite small, only 9 of us.

Each semester the timetable has been classes on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and each time the classes ran from 6:30pm until 9:30pm. 1 of the classes in semester 1 ran from 6pm to 9pm.

The breakdown in assessment has been exams worth 50-60% with continuous assessment making up the rest.

Several (roughly half of all) modules have needed weekly assignments. Almost every module has had a mid-term test and a major assignment.

Overall workload has been manageable but tough at times for the part-time evening group. Were you to do this course full-time you'd have no bother at all.

If you're looking for times you need to allow the following for each week of term:

9 hours for class
3-4 hours for main assignments
4-5 hours for continuous assessment.
+ x hours for study and exam prep.

Roy.

Hi how did you find this course?