THIS Friday, the fruits of one of the more unusual arts degree courses in the country will receive their degrees in a ceremony in Limerick. The 135 students involved are the first graduates from the BA degree course in Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, and the course from which they have graduated has rapidly become one of the most popular arts options in the country.
The four year BA programme commenced in 1992, one year after Mary I was linked with UL. The college had offered a B.Ed degree since 1974 and this included options in Irish, English, French, history, geography, maths, music and philosophy to BA level.
This was used as the basis for the new BA degree, with four new subject areas added to broaden the appeal: German, media studies, religious studies and Irish heritage studies. Students take four subjects in first year and then two subjects over the following years.
Media studies has proved "very, very popular", according to Dr John Hayes, co ordinating head of arts in Mary I.
With the expertise the college had, it successfully applied for a student radio licence and its radio station, Wired 103FM, now serves Limerick's 11,000 third level students as well as the general population.
Religious studies is also popular, offering a broad based ecumenical field of study, including Buddhism, feminism and peace and justice studies.
The programme is also unusual since arts students are put on placement in their third year, both in work experience and in other academic institutions from Slovenia to Colorado.
Its students have proved so popular that the college now has more placements than students to fill them, says Hayes. Modules are added in second year to help prepare students for future employment. These include language options, computers and TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) courses.
The campus now has over 1,300 students. In 1996, the degree course received 6-7,000 CAO mentions, so the college would like to expand to meet the demand.
"We would like to add a course in psychology because we feel there is a big demand for that," says Hayes. "We also keep a minimum of 10 per cent, and usually 15 per cent, of places for mature students."
This year, Mary I had 80 mature applicants - 26 received places.
"We see that demand increasing in the future," says Hayes. The college has acquired an old building adjacent to its current site and is in the process of refurbishing into meet a demand that shows no signs of abating for the foreseeable future.
