Fedelma McNamara, the Project Manager of the Trinity Education Project, will leave her role early next year as the project enters its final phrase.
McNamara will leave the post to take on a position in Trinity’s Global Relations Office as Director of Internationalisation.
Speaking to The University Times, McNamara said that it was a “really exciting project” and that she was “very lucky to have had the opportunity” to work on it.
The Trinity Education Project is a dramatic revolutionising of the College’s undergraduate education. Years in the making, the project will see a raft of reforms introduced, including the introduction of Christmas exams and the removal of special examinations. Underpinning the project are a set of graduate attributes, which Trinity hopes it will imbue in every student.
McNamara said she had few concerns about leaving the project as it enters the implementation stage. McNamara said she was not worried as the project was in a good state because of the team in place. She explained that “all of the subgroups have a programme of work to do and they’re on track to do that”. Whoever else replaces her, she said, is “coming into a structured programme of work”.
Speaking to The University Times, the Vice-Provost and Chief Sponsor of the Trinity Education Project, Chris Morash, said he was “thrilled for her”.
McNamara admitted that had the possibility of a new position come any earlier in the project, it might have been more “difficult to move”. As the project is no longer in the design and planning stages, however, she feels comfortable with the move.
While the project’s ambitions have been largely welcomed, there have been concerns expressed as to how schools will be able to implement the changes and the effect it may have on certain courses.
Speaking to The University Times last February, Prof Michael Bridge, Director of Undergraduate Teaching and Learning for the School of Chemistry, said “in some ways, TEP [the Trinity Education Project] adds to the potential problems, but might actually add to some of the solutions. So it’s opportunity. So there’s dangers, but there’s opportunities as well”.
Applications to fill McNamara’s position are still open, with interviews set to take place before Christmas.
She stressed that it is the work of the team as a whole that will ensure the success of the project: “This won’t happen unless the tutors are supportive, unless the academics are supportive, unless the administrative staff are supportive. So it is a combination, it’s not just one or two individuals, it’s the whole lot.”
