Charlotte Ryan | Contributing Writer
Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning in the School of Engineering, Ciaran Simms, yesterday denied that a decision had been made to introduce exams in January for Engineering students from 2015 onwards.
The unconfirmed rumour had circulated before being picked up by the Students’ Union (SU) who then posted about it on their Facebook page. However, this post was later removed by the SU at the request of the Engineering Department.
When asked to comment, Simms said: “The decision for this has most definitely not been made. However, we are keen to move to this model for our fourth-year Engineering School students to facilitate our internship programme.”
“We are keen to move to this model for our fourth-year Engineering School students to facilitate our internship programme.”
He stated that the introduction of January exams would be beneficial for those students who choose the optional module, as part of the five-year MAI programme in Engineering. The module requires that the student complete a placement in a company/clinic/research institution at the start of the second semester.
However the department is currently “constrained”, as students must return to College in April to sit their examinations for first-semester modules. It was thus recognised that having these exams in January, before the placement, would enable students to commit fully to their work and gain as much experience as possible, while allowing the internship programme to benefit “from a significantly longer time period”.
The rumours sparked criticism from Engineering students, complaining that sitting exams in January would impair their enjoyment of the Christmas holidays.
