A couple of years ago it came to the attention of Dr David Slattery, director of the school of arts in the Dublin Business School, that there were a lot of pre-degree options for students wanting to pursue business courses. "But for students in the arts there weren't any options," he says. "I thought this was unfair to arts students who similarly didn't qualify or get what they needed at Leaving Cert."
A school-leaver who didn't get the points or qualify to get into a business degree could get on to the NCA ladder system, go in at certificate level and work their way up to degree level. Dr Slattery applied to the NCA (NCEA???) to establish a similar arrangement for arts students. The result was the certificate in humanities-cultural studies, which is run in the fee-paying Dublin Business School. "It now acts as a preparatory course for entry onto the degree in arts," he explains.
The certificate is the same level as national certificates and so the entry requirement is a pass Leaving Certificate. This is the third year that the course has been on the CAO and while there are places for 20, there were only a dozen students this year.
"It is fairly intensive, so we are not focusing on a big class scenario. It is a fairly intensive course, so we give the students a lot of support. They get exposed to a range of subjects like culture, literature, psychology." The course covers information technology, writing and literature, as well as ommunications. Cultural studies provides an introduction to the area of sociology, anthropology and cultural studies.
The area of psychology, which is a very popular arts subject, is introduced to students in behavioural science. To be eligible for a place on the DBS arts degree, students must pass all the elements of the course and are selected by an interview panel. "Obviously we wouldn't encourage very weak students to go on and do a degree.
That wouldn't be in their, or our, interests," says Dr Slattery. "But we do bring people up to speed very much in communication, IT, writing, so even if a student opts to leave at the end of the year they would have a set of very practical skills." A weak student will be counselled in a different direction than the arts degree.
Students' options don't end with the Dublin Business School - graduates of the cultural studies certificate who did not have the full points for a place on university arts courses were offered places, following completion of the Dublin Business School certificate.
It is at the discretion of the colleges or universities whether they do that or not and it is up to the students to contact them. Dr Slattery says he is fairly sure that the cultural studies course is unique in Ireland. Although he is aware of a similar two-year course in operation, he insists that nothing else has such a pre-degree emphasis. It could be said that the course is suited to students on the verge of repeating their Leaving Cert in the hope of clocking up enough points to get a place on an arts degree. This option is more positive, says Dr Slattery, and it gives them the chance to look at something completely new. It also has the advantage that successful students can use the course as a stepping stone to do the Dublin Business School arts programmes.
Having to pay fees may be a drawback for some students, but fees should not be seen as a barrier to this course - in a way it prevents dropouts, says Dr Slattery. "It is difficult to keep students motivated for three to four years with the economy is so vibrant. The fees do act as an added motivation that isn't there in the public sector. Because when one pays fees at the beginning of the year it motivates the fee-payer to make sure the student keeps going." How successful this is in keeping students in the course is evident from the fact that there were no dropouts last year, and 80 per cent of the students went on to do arts in Dublin Business School.
