Comments on: An open letter to Orna Mulcahy and Leaving Cert Class of 2010

By: Kevn O'Brien

Kevn O'Brien — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:20:39 +0000

Brilliant. Mulcahy’s ignorance of the third level classroom is staggering. There is more motivated hardworking group in a class the mature students, and when they are around, the standard of the class rises considerably.
Teaching maths myself – I love teaching mature students.

By: brian t

brian t — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 11:35:54 +0000

Yep – I was referring to the IT piece re the “free pass” whinge, not your response. I’m in 3rd year now, so I have fewer large lectures and even the people at the back are taking it more seriously …

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Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:59:00 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tom Gleeson, Daragh O Brien. Daragh O Brien said: @Fergal Just finished a post about OMulchay's piece. I think you'll like it. http://bit.ly/6qOzuY [...]

By: Daragh

Daragh — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 22:56:35 +0000

@simon – thank you for your kind words.

@stereoroid I do hope I didn’t imply mature students get a free pass into study. I do think that that was an implied theme of the Irish Times piece though and that is just plain wrong. It is heartwarming to know that my alma mater tempted you back in to education.

Best of luck with the rest of your study and don’t let the beboists at the back distract you too much. I also bet you €10 that at the end of the year they’ll be tugging out of the lecturer to find out how their assignments will be graded and get hints on the exam papers.

By: Simon McGarr

Simon McGarr — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:22:36 +0000

That is a better post than the original article deserved to be associated with.

By: brian t

brian t — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:04:48 +0000

Excellent response to a silly piece. I’m now halfway through my 3rd year as a mature student at UCD, and I’m glad I did it. I can’t claim that I saw the recession coming, but when I was thinking of enrolling back in early 2007, I felt the economy “couldn’t keep this up” and I thought I had to do something. I attended an open evening, to find that UCD were actively encouraging mature students for the reasons you gave – what I would call a more “professional” attitude – so I went for it. You can see the difference in lectures: the mature students are there at the front, listening, while some teenage students are at the back, talking or reading Bebo on their laptops.

One misconception I sometimes hear from younger students, and hinted at in this piece, is that mature students get a “free pass” in to university, without any reference to academic standards. This is not correct, though the process varies by degree. All mature students need to support their applications with documentation regarding the qualifications and experience they have. Most I have spoken to (via the Mature Student Society) do Arts and related programmes, so they need to pass an admissions test (MSAP). In other cases such as mine (Engineering), I was given a grilling by the Dean and the course head, to see if I was the “right stuff” before I was offered the one (1) mature student place in my year.

If most mature students do Arts-type degrees, the impact of the “grey” on points requirements will be felt the most there. I fail to see why this is a problem, especially if this encourages students (mature or not) to look beyond Arts when considering a degree to pursue. After 2-1/2 years at UCD, I find myself wondering just how many Arts graduates Ireland needs, if its future is in Science and Technology? Not everyone needs to go to university, not if it means lower academic standards.