UNIVERSITY College Dublin (UCD) has unexpectedly cancelled intake into its evening commerce degree programme next October, saying the course needs to be "revitalised".
Up to 150 part-time students usually start the programme every second year, including 1996. However, the college decided at short notice not to take in students next year following an internal review. The decision does not affect students who have already started the programme.
"The evening B Comm has served students and the college well, but the market has changed and the course needs to be updated and revitalised," according to the dean of the Faculty of Commerce, Prof Frank Bradley.
Low completion rates and the retention of fees for evening students are two of the reasons for the decision not to take in students next year. Only a small proportion of night commerce students stayed the course. While many dropped out, while others transferred to the day degree programme.
UCD now offers its part-time BA programme in modular form, and it is now expected that the B Comm will follow this route. Modular courses allow students of all ages to build up credits for courses at their own pace. It takes a minimum of four years to obtain a degree.
The B Comm program me was also expected to suffer from the abolition of fees for full-time undergraduate students, this decision does not apply to fees for part-time students.
According to Prof Bradley, an internal task force has been appointed within UCD to plan the new B Comm programme, which is expected to take in students again in 1997.
