THE Dublin Institute of Technology has suspended its pilot semesterisation scheme in DIT Kevin Street, despite the fact that the DIT Academic Council voted earlier this year to accept semesterisation in principle.

A meeting of the DIT Kevin Street Academic Board was told last week that there will be no more semester exams in the college this year, with the possible exception of one course which has been semesterised for some time, although the courses involved in the scheme will continue to be modularised.

But the possibility of a blanket introduction of semesterisation throughout the DIT still exists, despite strong opposition from the students' union.

At a meeting of the DIT Academic Council earlier this year, there was an agreement in principle to semesterisation, but there were reservations in the report of the DIT committee appointed to assess semesterisation.

The committee noted that semesterisation would make additional demands on administrative and academic staff and that it would require an increase in resources in areas such as student services and educational technology.

Crucially, it also noted that semesterisation "may tend to increase the workload and examination pressure on students" and "may dilute the overall educational experience". The committee felt that broader aspects of student experiences at college and participation in sporting and social activities might be decreasing because of the work load.

Dr Matthew Hussey, the director of the faculty of science in the DIT, says that there had been difficulties for teaching staff who were trying to teach both semesterised and non semesterised courses in DIT Kevin Street, but they had "soldiered on" - for four years.

Staff also felt that DIT Kevin Street had been put "out on a limb" as far as semesterisation was concerned, and had been left to cope, with problems which other DIT colleges were not tackling at all. "It does require considerable administrative back up, which we are appallingly lacking in," says Hussey, although he stressed that this was due to a tack of resources. He says semesterisation needs to be introduced on an institutional basis, step by step in consultation with students and staff, if it is to be done properly.

The DIT students' union, DITSU, has consistently opposed the introduction of semesterisation into the DIT, arguing that it is unsuited to the Irish education system and places students under severe pressure. It sees the decision to cease the pilot project in DIT Kevin Street as a vindication of its views.

"Our position would be that they've tried it and it didn't work," says Colin Joyce, president of the DIT students' union. "It's an American solution to an Irish problem. If they want to have continuous assessment they're going to have to be a lot more constructive about it."

Joyce says the life had been "choked" out of DIT Kevin Street due to the pressures imposed by semesterisation. "The standard of student life in the DIT is quite high in terms of clubs, societies, interest in the students' union and extracurricular activities, including charity work and study groups for children," he says. "Kevin Street has always lagged behind the rest. We hope we can repair the damage that has been done.