Sir, – I have a suggestion in relation to the debate about the future of arts degrees. It should be made possible for students to take joint honours degrees that comprise one vocational subject and one humanities subject.
There are some joint honours/dual degree options already in the CAO handbook, but the subject pairings tend to remain within either the vocational side or the humanities side rather than mixing one side with the other.
Business with a language and law with a language are among the crossover exceptions of which I am aware.
A young person wishing to attend university today very often must make a difficult choice between a subject that provides a direct route to employment and a subject that provides a broader intellectual and cultural foundation.
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A system allowing for a wide selection of combined vocational and humanities degrees would reduce the need to make that difficult choice.
I realise that adjusting university timetabling to facilitate this would be a challenge, but I believe this solution would improve enrolment in humanities courses in our universities as well as providing other intangible benefits to individual students and to society in general. – Yours, etc,
JOHN MARK DOWNEY,
Dundrum,
Dublin 14.
