Up to 25 students from the National College of Art and Design (NCAD) will be able to undertake Trinity Electives next year, as part of a new agreement between the two colleges.
A new collaboration between the colleges – which will see 25 Trinity students travel in the other direction to take a new Elective module in NCAD – was announced by Trinity in March.
It will bring second and third-year NCAD students onto Trinity’s campus, and see both sets of students given an ID card and email address for the other college while taking an Elective, according to a memorandum circulated to Board members in May. Its introduction comes amid the ongoing creation of new Electives as part of the revamping of Trinity’s undergraduate education.
The document, seen by The University Times, says NCAD students will have access to Trinity’s library, though they won’t be able to use College’s Counselling Service, Sports Centre, Disability Service or Nursery.
The Elective – called Contemporary Art Angles – will be introduced next year despite uncertainty over the impact of the coronavirus on how colleges will teach their students next year, Áine Kelly, the chair of Trinity’s Electives Subcommittee, told The University Times.
In an email, Kelly wrote: “The NCAD elective will be going ahead next year, as will all of the other 38 Trinity Electives listed on the website. Many Trinity Electives have been designed to be delivered in a blended format already, with a mixture of online and face-to-face elements.”
This alliance will continue on a pro rata basis, contingent on the number of Trinity students taking the NCAD elective and the number of second and third-year NCAD students available.
Contemporary Art Angles will be led in NCAD by Prof Philip Napier, who heads up the college’s fine art faculty.
In an interview with The University Times in March, he said he hopes students will “step into that unknown experimental place”.
He added that “art learning is applicable in lots of ways, across all sorts of disciplines”.
