Wide choice of courses in teaching and communications

College Choice: Today college choice looks at teaching and communications

Primary Teaching

Last year, the total number of applicants listing the Bachelor of Education degree (B.Ed. Primary Teaching) as a first preference was 2,651 for the five colleges offering this programme.

The Department of Education and Science reserves up to 10 per cent of places for Gaeltacht applicants. B.Ed. degrees are offered in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick; St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin; Coláiste Mhuire, Marino, Dublin; Froebel College, Sion Hill, Dublin; and the Church of Ireland College, Rathmines, Dublin. The last three colleges offer their degrees in conjunction with Trinity College. The B.Ed. degree programme is a three-year course.

Mary Immaculate College and St Patrick's offer a three-year honours degree. An ordinary degree is on offer at Coláiste Mhuire, at Froebel College and at the Church of Ireland College, but it is possible to obtain an honours degree by taking a fourth year after graduation.

Graduate entry to Primary Teaching

For those who take an undergraduate degree in any discipline and who meet the minimum entry requirements in Gaeilge, English and Mathematics, there has been, for the past number of years, a graduate entry route to primary teaching. Entry to this programme (18 months), which normally begins in February, is by interview. Hibernia College also offers an on-line postgraduate entry option to primary teaching. This is recognised by the Department of Education and Science for the purpose of appointment as primary teachers.

CAO points requirements for Teaching Courses

The following are the three-year Level 8 degrees:

Mary Immaculate Limerick - MI 005, 2003 (465), 2004 (465); Gaeltacht entry - MI 006, 2003 (420), 2004 (425); Primary Teaching & Psychology - MI 008, new 2004 (535); St Patrick's, Drumcondra - PD 101, 2003 (455), 2004 (455); Gaeltacht entry - PD 102, 2003 (420), 2004 (415)

Three-year Level 7 degrees: Cólaiste Muire, Marino - CM 001, 2003 (445), 2004 (450); Gaeltacht entry - CM 002, 2003 (400), 2004 (415); Froebel College, Sion Hill - FR 001, 2003 (440), 2004 (450); Gaeltacht entry - FR 002, 2003 (400), 2004 (410); Church of Ireland College - CE 001, 2003 (380), 2004 (375)

Only students with a minimum of a C3 or better in higher-level Irish will be eligible for a place on any of the above courses. The Church of Ireland College requires higher-level Irish. It says that it will accept a D grade, but only if there are not enough applicants with a C3 or better.

Early Childhood Education

A number of degrees in Early Childhood Studies/Education are offered at Mary Immaculate (MI007), at NUI Cork (CK111), at IT Carlow (CW105 & CW120 Wexford campus) and at the DIT (DT572). Points requirements in 2004 varied from 350 to 390.

Second-level Teaching

Those interested in second-level teaching normally take a primary degree in Arts, Science or Business, followed by a Higher Diploma in Education, entry to which is by no means automatic. Alternately, candidates may opt for a specialist degree such as Physical Education at the University of Limerick (LM 090). Prospective students here must pass a movement ability test. Other options are: Biological Science with Physics/Chemistry Teaching (LM092); Materials and Construction Technology with Teacher-Training (LM094); Materials and Engineering Technology with Teacher-Training (LM095); Physics and Chemistry Teaching (LM096).

Courses at the Mater Dei Institute are: Religious Education with English (MD 201); History (MD301); Music (MD401).

At St Patrick's, Thurles: Religious Studies, Business Studies and Education (TH001).

A Dublin City University: Science Education (DC203).

At University College, Cork: Chemical Sciences (CK406) and Physics and Astrophysics (CK408). Students in both of these may choose to follow a teaching route from second year.

At St Angela's, Sligo: Home Economics with Biology (AS001); Catechetics (AS002); Irish (AS003); Economics (AS004); Religious Education (AS005).

Following the decision to close the Home Economics College at Sion Hill, the NUI has agreed to waive the foreign language requirement for entry to Home Economics at St Angela's in 2005 and 2006. From 2007, students will require a foreign language for entry.

Journalism

Entry requirements for Journalism are high. Dublin City University (DC132) and the DIT (FT353) offer degrees over four years. The entry points requirements were 420 in the DIT and 465 in DCU in 2004.

Areas covered include media technology, reading media, news-reporting, law, feature-writing and radio journalism.

Work placements are built into the third and fourth year of the degree course.

For those who are prepared to pay tuition fees, Griffith College in Dublin offers a three-year Journalism and Media Communications degree (GD450). The entry points for this degree course in 2004 were 280.

Communications

A Communications degree is offered by DCU (DC131). Graduates will be qualified to pursue careers in the media, in IT, advertising, marketing, public relations and community and public service. Entry to this course is very competitive, with 455 points required in 2004.

Media Studies

A number of colleges offer higher degrees in Media Studies.

The course at NUI Maynooth (MH109) combines hands-on, practical training in television and radio production with academic courses in areas such as sociological analysis of media and film history. The points required in 2004 were 445.

Dublin Business School has a fee-paying course, Arts (Media Studies DB564), costing €4100 at 220 points. Dún Laoghaire IADT offers a broad degree programme, English - Media & Cultural Studies (DL241), which required 380 points in 2004.

College Choice resumes on Monday.

Brian Mooney's column on CAO options will appear each weekday in the run-up to the deadline at the end of this month.

• You can email Brian Mooney at bmooney@irish-times.ie

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