The new VP for Education and Placement Mathew Davey spoke to The College View about his plans for the upcoming year.
“The big thing I was working on was the national campaign for placement expenses for teachers,” said Davey.
He went on to explain that his own course, Bachelor of Education, which used to be three years long was extended to four years about two years ago which in turn extends the period of placement student teachers have to do.
“The cost of placement has gone up a lot because the placement periods have been extended so teachers, as well as paying fees, have to pay for their travel, their clothes, their food, their rent and all the resources they’re using on placement so the quality of their teaching, I think is being affected as they can’t afford the best materials to teach with,” he said.
He went on to explain that he is working with Trade Unions and other universities to help combat the costs in a national campaign for student teachers which is currently being run by the USI.
For student nurses, Davey plans to make a ‘Placement Tips and Tricks’ video as well as another inspiring video in order to boost their morale ahead of long placement periods.
“They’ll be shown at their pre-placement lectures as well as sent out in emails by the SU,” he said.
He has also plans to help MINT students who failed a module but already made plans to study or do their INTRA abroad this year. DCU used to ask these students to come back and repeat the year, however, now they are able to go abroad and carry over the module into the next year following an amendment to the course regulations.
“I plan to have two separate INTRA talks for Science and Health student,” he said.
“There’ll be a Humanities INTRA talk and a business one as well. They’ll also be videoed and made available on the INTRA Facebook page.”
Elsa Mc Evoy