No one can deny the ambition of the ongoing Trinity Education Project, a complete reimagining of the way Trinity’s undergraduates are taught and assessed. While complaints can be raised over the abstract nature of its goals or some of the changes it seeks to make, no one can deny that by undertaking and attempting to complete it in a short time frame, Trinity is being extremely ambitious in aiming to achieve something new.
The Editorial Board has argued before about the importance of Trinity being ambitious, despite its financial position. From helping to make a case for extra funding to trying to keep afloat in rankings, undertaking large projects is, somewhat counterintuitively, vital for a university’s attractiveness and reputation.
But as it looks towards this ambition, College must realise it is trying to fulfill these aims based on very shaky foundations. The project has dedicated a strand to acknowledging and supporting extra and co-curricular activities, yet Trinity’s societies have long been impacted by a bureaucratic and disjointed system. They have decried the removal of a mailout that used to allow them to advertise their activities to incoming first-year students.
With another strand focused on internships and study abroad, College must recognise what appear to be systematic administrative failings when it comes to with its Erasmus and exchange systems, failings that result in frustration and confusion for hundreds of students every year. Issues range from being unable to register to failing year-on-year to properly integrate or translate Erasmus grades into the Trinity grading system. With another strand dedicated to virtual learning, the frequent complaints about Trinity’s online systems cast doubt as to how successful the outcomes will be here.
With these changes to be introduced for students entering in 2018/19, there will have to be a transition period, with different students and year groups working from different systems. This will be a red flag for some, with administrative organisation being one of the most common complaints levelled against College.
The project’s aims are ambitious and – if achieved – have the potential to propel Trinity into a pioneering position. However, College must not just reach high, but also look at the systems already in place and how unsuitable they may be for building something world-class.
