Thousands of students returning to college at the State's largest university, UCD, have been unable to enrol for their courses over the past week and a half due to problems with a new online enrolment system.
As the university prepares for next Monday's planned one-day strike by members of Siptu, it has emerged that the students in question, mainly from the arts and social science disciplines, have not been able to enrol for the courses they intend to study. A UCD spokeswoman confirmed that these students, who had been told they could enrol on courses from August 28th last, were unable to do so until yesterday.
By yesterday evening, some 1,400 out of approximately 4,500 arts and social science students had enrolled on specific courses.Overall, about half of all students had fully enrolled, with the remainder expected to do so in the coming days and weeks.
Earlier last month, the new system, which allows students to select courses within the modularised degree programme, crashed when business studies students attempted to use it.
However, the UCD spokeswoman said the introduction of the new system, albeit later than had been anticipated, still meant students were "ahead of the game", as it allowed them to choose their optional courses earlier than in previous years. She said the college was sorry for any problems the delay had caused.
Alyson Bailey, a second-year mature student, said students looking to enrol early on courses which are regularly oversubscribed had been left with little information as to when the system would be up and running. She had hoped to do a film studies course as her minor degree subject, but learned only yesterday that the course would not be offered this year.
The UCD spokeswoman could not say how many other courses were not being offered as minor degree programmes this year. But she said none of the courses still enrolling were full by yesterday evening. She advised students to get on online as soon as possible and to contact the service desk if they have any difficulties.
Meanwhile, a meeting of some 200 Siptu members yesterday reaffirmed plans to "challenge the abuse of fixed-term contract working" with a one-day strike next Monday. The union said management had offered "nothing by way of resolution". But the UCD spokeswoman said it was still committed to talks.