Students and staff at DIT have been left confused and misinformed surrounding the dates for their upcoming Christmas examinations due to its proposed merge with ITT and ITB next year.
With exams scheduled for both before and after Christmas, the academic calendar has persisted to be a topic of uncertainty among students.
The confusion stems from the proposed merge between DIT with fellow colleges IT Tallaght and IT Blanchardstown in the near future, with the latter two having different academic calendars to that of DIT. The merge will see the three institutes form an alliance that will culminate in a new Technological University.
“(The) three institutions in the Dublin region – DIT, ITB and ITT – have come together to explore the benefits of structured cooperation and collaboration and to jointly seek designation as a new unitary university, providing educational opportunities that are practice-based and research- informed”, their website says.
With DIT in a stage of transition with the merge in mind, current students and lecturers alike feel that they are being tested as bait with the new running order, with the current timetables due to take
place for the current academic year only.
While this is also an issue for staff at DIT, the Teachers Union of Ireland have opposed the changes to the academic calendar, taking the concern to the Labour Relations Commission. Although no agreement was made with the LRC, the matter was later referred to the Labour Court- recommending a review of the calendar after the current academic year, with the schedule still to be in operation for 2014/15.
Exams for DIT students will run from the fifteenth until the 22nd of December and will resume again on the 5th of January, ending on the twelfth.
Aaron Gallagher
Image: campus.net
Leave a Reply