The first National University of Ireland degree programme to be delivered using the Internet, the BSc in rural development, will begin in September, the Minister for Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Mr Ó Cuív, announced yesterday.
Students taking the four-year course will be able to do so without leaving their homes using the Internet, on-line classrooms and chat-rooms developed and successfully tested here and in the US.
The students will sometimes attend lectures at local learning centres with local tutors. They will have back-up materials on CD. They will contact tutors on-line and will also interact with other students through protected on-line chat-rooms.
This is the first bachelor of science degree in rural development in Ireland. It is also unique in having been developed and produced in a collaboration by four universities of Ireland, the NUIs in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Maynooth.
This degree programme is aimed at people who are already highly involved in rural development and is designed to produce a new type of specialist graduate equipped with superior rural development, advisory, and management skills.
Mr Ó Cuiv said the course also offered thousands of people who were interested in rural development the opportunity to obtain a professional and academic qualification which acknowledged and advanced their interest and their work, whether as volunteers or as professionals.
Dr Michael Ward, NUI Cork; Prof Jim Phelan, NUI Dublin; Prof Michael Cuddy, NUI Galway; and Dr Ted Fleming, NUI Maynooth, form the academic steering group which developed the degree programme.