Semester with Dublin Business School (DBS)

FIE has partnered with the Dublin Business School and School of Arts (DBS), Ireland’s largest independent third level college, to present a semester-long program combining direct enrollment at DBS with FIE’s unique Irish Life and Cultures course.

About DBS

Over the past 25 years, the school has developed a strong reputation for its student-centered approach to teaching, and for providing a level of academic innovation not usually found in the more traditional Irish universities. DBS offers a broad range of courses and social opportunities, and the relatively small size of the institution allows good interaction between students and staff. The school stresses sound teaching and individual attention by limiting class sizes. DBS is located in the heart of the city just a few minutes’ stroll from St. Stephens Green, Grafton Street, Trinity College and the Temple Bar district. 

Study facilities at DBS include the DBS Main library, located on the second floor of the 13-14 Aungier Street building, as well as the Dame Street Postgraduage Library.  By using up-to-date print and electronic resources, the libraries provide optimum facilities for undergraduate and postgraduate students.

Eligibility

2.75 Minimum GPA
Sophomore – Senior standing

Academics

Irish Life and Cultures

All FIE students undertake an intensive Irish Life and Cultures Course, which begins prior to the Irish academic calendar and continues throughout the term. Students explore a variety of modules relation to Irish history, language, culture, and politics, with special emphasis on the history of peace and conflict in Ireland. Complementing the Dublin-based course lectures and co-curricular excursions, two study tours take students to Northern Ireland (Derry and Belfast) and Western Ireland (Galway, Connemara and the Aran Islands) to contextualize the topics at hand.

Additionally, a series of FIE-led required and optional Mobile Seminars throughout the semester address topics such as:

  • On the Fringes: Ireland’s Indigenous Traveler Communities
  • Ag labhairt as Gaeilge: Irish Language Preservation Efforts
  • A Hundred Years of the GAA: Sport in Irish Society
  • Taking the Boat: Irish Youth and Emigration
  • Irish Neutrality and the Armed Forces
  • Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation: Conflict Mediation and Nonviolence
  • Socialized Medicine: Inefficient or the Way Forward?
  • The Irish-American Connection: Contemporary Relations between Friendly Neighbors

DBS Coursework

With particular strengths in Business (especially Accountancy and Finance), Cultural Studies, Media Studies, Psychology and Communication, DBS offers students a variety of course opportunities at their urban campus just off Dublin’s popular Grafton Street area. Students may select up to four electives, and may also undertake an internship with the FIE-DBS program.

Orientation, Student Services and Housing

Students will participate in comprehensive on-site orientations with both FIE and DBS to help acclimatize them with the program and their surroundings, as well as provide a basic underpinning for the cultural learning they will undergo during their term abroad.

FIE’s outstanding Resident Staff provide students with both individual support and a variety of group opportunities, from the Mobile Seminar Series to an extensive extra-curricular calendar that might include theater events, literary festivals, comedy shows, and sport matches.

Students on the FIE-DBS program live in student apartments with other study abroad students from across Europe. These provide students with an independent living arrangement in multi-bedroom apartments located in the city center, a 20 to 25 minute walk from DBS. Apartments consist of 3 to 4 single bedrooms with a sink, shared bathroom and living/dining/kitchen area. The apartments are fully furnished and the kitchen is equipped with utensils such as cookware, silverware and dishes.  Each bedroom also has private study facilities with non-wireless internet access.

DBS Elective Course Catalog 2011-2012

Dublin Semester Publication