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Jan
19
2012

Letter to Partners: Irish Developments

Dear Partners,

Another year has nearly come to pass for FIE in Ireland. With the new year, we wanted to take a few moments to discuss some new academic developments on the horizon. As you all are hopefully aware by now, Fall 2012 will see the launch of two new FIE partnerships in Ireland: the first with the University of Dublin, Trinity College (Trinity): http://www.fie.org.uk/dublin/semestertrinity/ and the second with University College Dublin (UCD): http://www.fie.org.uk/dublin/semesterucd/. We will continue to progress and develop our long-term partnership with Dublin Business School (DBS): http://www.fie.org.uk/dublin/dublin_dbs_semester_program/.

While you will receive more detailed communication about these programmes in the new year, the most pressing and immediate impact the addition of these programmes will have is an alteration to the delivery method of FIE’s core course: the Foundation Course in Irish Culture & Society.

It is important to us that all students, despite their selection of a host institution in Dublin, receive the same high quality of instruction and experiential learning opportunities in Irish Studies. With that in mind, we have developed a new course to replace the Foundation Course in Irish Culture & Society that will be accessible and required of all FIE students studying in Dublin. This course will continue to be taught and transcripted through Dublin Business School in partnership with FIE.

The new course will be titled Irish Life & Culture and will run for the duration of the academic term, instead of the first few weeks of term, as has been the case in the past. Students will not suffer from these adjustments, instead, the curriculum planned is even more comprehensive, experiential and academically rigorous. Students will still be required to participate in two academic field excursions: one to Northern Ireland and one to the West of Ireland and will also have a variety of co-curricular events required of them. The Mobile Seminar Programme will continue unabated.

It is our intention to pilot this new programme during the upcoming spring semester of 2012. I have attached the intended syllabus of the revised programme and welcome any questions or comments.

Alterations to the delivery mode of the curriculum will allow for a deeper exploration of themes and issues facing contemporary Irish society, will allow students to build on a historical background provided to them at the outset and will also enable us to offer a longer and more comprehensive orientation programme. In short, we are excited about these new developments and hope you will join us in support of them.

Athbhliain faoi shéan agus faoi shona duit!

Warm Regards,

Genevieve Judson-Jourdain
Resident Director