Mature Students unfairly taking College Places?

I assume it will only be time whereby grants will be extinct and students will be paying back after they have completed their education

From my college days... I recall that it was only the students out of school that were prone to drop out. Any mature student that came back knew how to work hard and made the most of it.
 
+1.

I was a mature student some 12 years ago. There was 40 in my class at the start of first year. The next year we were down to 10. I was the only mature student of the lot. A 75% drop out rate. Madness.
 
bond-007 said:
+1.

I was a mature student some 12 years ago. There was 40 in my class at the start of first year. The next year we were down to 10. I was the only mature student of the lot. A 75% drop out rate. Madness.
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Waitaminute!!!
A class of 40 reduces to 10!!

What happens in that situation?

Do they reduce the teaching staff?

Do they offer places to others?

Say for example they hire two french lecturers,for the 40 students.
then 30 drop out so the college needs just one,or a half of one,what do they do?
Are we ( tax payers ) paying for this??
Do the colleges take this massive drop out rate into account when hiring staff?
(Questions not directed at the quoted poster,just general questions )
 
thedaras said:
Waitaminute!!!
A class of 40 reduces to 10!!

What happens in that situation?

Do they reduce the teaching staff?

Do they offer places to others?

Say for example they hire two french lecturers,for the 40 students.
then 30 drop out so the college needs just one,or a half of one,what do they do?
Are we ( tax payers ) paying for this??
Do the colleges take this massive drop out rate into account when hiring staff?
(Questions not directed at the quoted poster,just general questions )
Click to expand...
Secret agent training is very hard. ;)
 
thedaras said:
Waitaminute!!!
A class of 40 reduces to 10!!

What happens in that situation?

Do they reduce the teaching staff?

Do they offer places to others?

Say for example they hire two French lecturers,for the 40 students.
then 30 drop out so the college needs just one,or a half of one,what do they do?
Are we ( tax payers ) paying for this??
Do the colleges take this massive drop out rate into account when hiring staff?
Click to expand...
Well they do. In the sciences a 75% drop out rate is common enough particularly in the ITs. They would have enough lecturers hired to teach the first years. In the second year there would be different teachers teaching the now smaller class. You would normally loose one student a week over the course of the year and of course a few would fail the exams. I did comment on the drop out rate to one of the senior teachers, he said the most that ever came back in second year was 15.

There were some awfully immature students back in the day. They thought that being a mature student was a joke.
 
bond-007 said:
There were some awfully immature students back in the day.
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There still are, if the amount of loud, shouty, self obssessed. 'look at me' teenagers you see on buses and hanging around shopping centres are anything to go by. In fact, it might be no bad thing if they had to go straight out into the real world for a couple of years before going to University in order to realise the competition they will be up against in the labour market and the fact that most of them are not the fascinating ,uber talented, sought after beings they seem to imagine they are.
 
Just sounds like the average 17/18 year old to me. No reason to think that they would be any more mature than those who don't go to 3rd level.
 
That's my point. Presumably many of the school leavers going to college (and more deserving of places than people aged 23+) come from that pool.
 
liaconn said:
In fact, it might be no bad thing if they had to go straight out into the real world for a couple of years before going to University in order to realise the competition they will be up against in the labour market and the fact that most of them are not the fascinating ,uber talented, sought after beings they seem to imagine they are.
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Thats a brilliant idea - is that what the idea of a 'gap' year is about (or is that more geared for a bit of craic between school and university?)
 
truthseeker said:
Thats a brilliant idea - is that what the idea of a 'gap' year is about
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I think traditionally it was for trvelling and broadening the mind - which may or may not include paid employment.

In my day 'kibbutzing' combined with the temporary adoption of eastern religions/philosphies, a wholefood diet with a side order of mind altering substances was the big thing.
 
Caveat said:
In my day 'kibbutzing' combined with the temporary adoption of eastern religions/philosphies, a wholefood diet with a side order of mind altering substances was the big thing.
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hmmmm....in my day we couldnt afford to take time out to go off enjoying ourselves, in fact it was frowned upon that I wanted an education at all - why couldnt I just get out and get a job immediately after school!!

So I had to combine my studies with temporary adoptions of eastern religions/philosophies, a some food diet :) and naturally a smattering of mind altering substances. It was hard work I tells ya!
 
The Orna Mulcahy article was elitist, snobby and all about me, me, me, me me.

It is hard trying to get into college, and it is stressful for parents of leaving cert students, but Orna Mulcahy specifically talked about " parents in the suburbs".
She doesn't have a lot of sympathy with people who can't got to college, because they don't live in a city or town with a college and their parents cant afford the rent and upkeep, or people from backgrounds where there is no-one to encourage them, help them with CAO forms, make sure they have somewhere quiet to study, people
with disabilities ( The list goes on, and on, and on)

There are lots of people for whom getting into college and staying there is a real struggle, both mature students and school leavers.

Having a go at mature students taking my childs place is just selfish.
 
One of the brightest guys I ever met got mixed up with drugs at 16 - he never made it to college - he died of a drug overdose at 30.
Another guy mind financed himself through 2 years of playing pool in the students union by sussing the payout intervals of slot machines.

ONQ.
 
huskerdu said:
The Orna Mulcahy article was elitist, snobby and all about me, me, me, me me.

It is hard trying to get into college, and it is stressful for parents of leaving cert students, but Orna Mulcahy specifically talked about " parents in the suburbs".
She doesn't have a lot of sympathy with people who can't got to college, because they don't live in a city or town with a college and their parents cant afford the rent and upkeep, or people from backgrounds where there is no-one to encourage them, help them with CAO forms, make sure they have somewhere quiet to study, people
with disabilities ( The list goes on, and on, and on)

There are lots of people for whom getting into college and staying there is a real struggle, both mature students and school leavers.

Having a go at mature students taking my childs place is just selfish.
Click to expand...

I think that was what was so galling about the article. The sense of entitlement and the assumption that her child almost 'owned' a place at University that was being 'given' to someone else.
 
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