Overall responsibility for education in Ireland lies with the Minister of Education and the Department of Education is structured to reflect the structures of the education system: primary, secondary, university and other higher education, special structures. The 1937 Constitution enacted that the family is the first educator of the child and the State's duty is to provide free primary education and to supplement and aid private and other initiatives at other levels.
North to south, the maximum length of Ireland is 486 km; its extreme width is 280 km. Malin Head, at latitude 55°27' north, and Mizen Head, at latitude 51°27' north, are, respectively, the northernmost and southernmost points on the island; easternmost and westernmost points are demarcated by longitude 5°25' west and longitude 10°30' west.
1997 European Union documentation gives the population of Ireland as 3,525,719.
The gross domestic product per capita is 15,348 Ecu and the workforce is broken down thus: agriculture 14%, industry 29% and services 57%.
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GDP per head |
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In Ireland a separate administrative structure exists in relation to vocational education and vocational training.
Vocational education is the primary responsibility of the Department of Education whereas the Department of Enterprise and Employment is largely responsible for vocational training. Some linkages exist between these systems, especially in relation to the vocational education and training for craft apprentices in legally designated trades.
The State is the primary provider of initial vocational education and training and continuing vocational training for the unemployed, whereas private sector provision dominates in relation to continuing vocational training of the employed and of individuals.
The private sector is still the largest in terms of citizens enrolled but the relative gap with the public sector has closed. Much of the new endeavours are in the public institutions in Ireland. Many of these endeavours involve the application of the new technologies which are available to the distance education sector. This is in contrast to the private sector in Ireland which is still uses print based materials.
In comparison with the major European providers of distance education the system of distance education provision in Ireland is autonomous. No association of distance education providers exists, private or public.
| Flexible Learning (IRE) Ltd |
| Institute of Public Administration |
| Irish Management Institute |
| Kilroys College |
| Home Study Institute |
| McKeon-Murray BTS |
| School of Practical Childcare |
| National College of Childcare |
| International Correspondence Schools |
| Marketing Institute |
| National Distance Education Centre, Dublin City University |
| St. Patrick's College, Maynooth |
| University College Dublin |
| University College Cork |
| University College Galway |
| Athlone Institute of Technology |
| Cork Institute of Technology |
| Trinity College Dublin |
| National College of Industrial Relations |
A number of semi-public and proprietary institutions offer a range of courses and there is a presence of international structures like the International Correspondence Schools and the Open University of the United Kingdom and a range of United Kingdom conventional universities.
An authoritative listing of the providers of distance education and training in Ireland is maintained by Aontas, the national adult education association. The listing has grown somewhat in the 1990s due, in part, to the entry into the country of a range of distance education programmes from the United Kingdom, with the opening of an office of the Open University in Dublin and advertising from distance education departments of conventional UK universities. This is allied to a growing acceptance by the public of studying at a distance.
From the Aontas listing, for the purposes of this report, the institutions will be distributed thus:
Distance education programmes from conventional universities: the National Distance Education Centre/Dublin City University; other universities; the Dublin Institute of Technology; the Regional Institutes of Technology because these are now moving from the further education sector, where most of their courses lie, to the granting of degrees and other higher education qualifications.
Proprietary training provision: all other institutions.
The major Irish distance training providers are:
Flexible Learning, Cork: courses for the technical, engineering and pharmaceutical industries with new courses in soft skills like customer service, team leadership, supervisory studies.
Institute of Personnel Management: courses in management, personnel and related areas.
Irish Management Institute: courses in management and computing
Kilroy's College is the major Irish secondary correspondence college and offers, as well, adult training courses in psychology, civil service examinations and related areas.
Home Study Institute: courses in accountancy, bookkeeping and related areas.
McKeon-Murray Business Training Services: courses in accountancy, business and management.
School of Practical Childcare: courses in childcare.
Distance education at university level in Ireland commenced with the foundation of the Distance Education Unit at the National Institute of Higher Education in Dublin in 1981. This institution is now Dublin's third university, Dublin City University, and the Distance Education Unit has evolved into the National Distance Education Centre. The National Distance Education Centre was established in 1982. The Centre, which is formally designated a faculty of the University, is the executive arm of the National Distance Education Council, and operates in co-operation with other higher education institutions in both the university and the technological sectors.
The extension of opportunities to adults to participate in higher education is the central objective of the Centre. This is achieved by providing second chance education, as well as programmes aimed at updating skills in a changing technological environment. Programmes available include:
The courses are presented in modules and begin with an introductory module of eight weeks duration before enrolling on the Degree/Diploma programme. The introductory module is aimed at preparing students for learning at a distance.
The European Virtual Classroom is used for the delivery of the course. This is a direct broadcast satellite-based method of education using television and telephones to teach at a distance, supported by tutorials and texts. Students can go to any of 15 local centres to attend class, while the lecturers themselves are in UCD. The illustrated lectures are televised and distributed 'live' by satellite to the local learning centres, which may be in regional colleges, training centres or in-company training centres.
A discussion session follows, where students can telephone the lecturer with questions and get an immediate answer over the airwaves. The lectures are based on the comprehensive learning materials supplied to students and are supported by one hour, small group tutorials with a local tutor. Full text support is also provided.
This programme is a seminal departure in the distance education sector in Ireland. It has been highly successful and enrolments are stable. The potential which such a system offers in enormous, a pan-European classroom accessable from all regions of the European Union, is most attractive and warrants support
The long term aim is to deliver high quality, distance-delivered, fully accredited education to fee-paying learners. Some of these courses will be academic third-level courses, others may be for leisure or recreation.
Once inside the TopClass system (which is closed-registered students are issued with logons and passwords) you read lecture material presented at weekly intervals over an eight-week period. You also have opportunities for participating in class discussions, e-mailing the tutor or other class members, self-testing, encountering hot links of related interest on the Internet, and more besides.
Some courses even facilitate group work amongst class members. Courses last eight weeks. Each Monday new lecture material is posted, which inevitably encourages new discussion. You have the option of reading the lecture material online, or printing it out. Previous' weeks lecture material is left online until the course comes to an end.
Courses are designed to take anywhere from one to two hours of your time each week (this includes reading lecture material, self-testing, reading discussion list items, exploring hot links of related interest, etc.). Enrolment is limited to 30 students so that class members don't get bogged down with hundreds of e-mails a week.
A typical course is delivered in an illustrated lecture-type format (similar to what currently occurs in normal everyday university lecture theatres). The lecture will originate from the purpose built interactive classroom mentioned above.
The learner, then, tunes in at home, views the lecture and has an opportunity to comment or ask questions there and then with the tutor in the interactive classroom via telephone or remote control, or may interact at a later stage via e-mail, Course information and material is available to the student via the World Wide Web.
Further programmes are offered from University College Cork (awards in Field Ecology and Credit Union studies), University College Galway (Diploma in Teaching and Learning, Certificate in Social Care).
Courses are also underway from the Dublin Institute of Technology (which has 500 students in in-company distance courses) and Sligo and Cork Institutes of Technology. The National College of Industrial Relations also offers degree courses at a distance
Ireland is one of the member states of the European Union which has no legislation specific to distance education provision. There does not exist an association of proprietary providers. In other member states these associations have minimum qualitative norms and regulations which must be met before a member is admitted Ireland, then, has no form of regulation, state or private, compulsory or voluntary.
There is no open university in Ireland. It is worth noting that the Open University of the United Kingdom is now operating in Ireland. In 1997 the number of people from the Republic of Ireland studying with the Open University is more than 3,000. The Open University of the United Kingdom also has a network of 17 study centres with a central office in Dublin.
Educational providers in Ireland are increasingly complementing their conventional courses with a distance training alternative. This is particularly evident in institutions involved in vocational training courses. The relative strength of the information technology sector in Ireland has meant that providers are more aware of the technical possibilities. The distance education sector's performance in Ireland may be described as robust. The quality of the educational providers concentrating on giving courses at distance is a good omen for distance education in the future in Ireland.
Irish universities lie at the interface of two great university traditions and draw from both. They participate in the traditions and characteristics of universities in the English-speaking world and share many structures with universities in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, Australia and New Zealand. These universities tend to focus on quantitative quality control, educational technology, with the decades-long interest in technology in education leading naturally to an openness to distance education and open university structures.
Irish university tradition has, in addition, a linkage to continental European ideas, with particular affinity to France, Spain and Italy where university traditions are less open to technology in education, prefer qualitative to quantitative evaluation and value highly the traditions of university teaching.
The main aim of the DEIS department is to support and assist the Institute of Technology and its departments in developing the pedagogical and general educational aspects of its provision and in increasing access to it.
Throughout its relatively short history DEIS has made many national and international links with commercial, industrial and educational bodies in order to advance approaches to learning in as broad a manner as possible. Details of the projects in which it is involved are available from the links on the Deis website.
The learner is awarded Single Subject Certificate or Post-Graduate Diploma in Environmental Protection or Masters in Science in Environmental Protection
The aim of this course is to provide, using a distance learning format, post-graduate level training in environmental protection and management. The courses are designed to provide graduates and technologists in industry and State Bodies, who have or may wish to have environmental responsibilities, but who may not have any formal environmental training, with the opportunity to up-grade or further their technical skills and academic credentials. The distance learning mode minimum disruption to normal employment. Although the course is aimed at those in full-time employment, full-time employment is not a pre-requisite for the
course.
| Open University | 0 |
| Conventional Universities | 8,000 |
| Government training | 0 |
| Private Training | 4,000 |
| Total | 12,000 |
| Open University | 0 |
| Conventional Universities | 6,092 |
| Government training | 0 |
| Private Training | 10,500 |
| Total | 16,592 |
| Open University | 0 |
| Conventional Universities | 7,566 |
| Government training | 0 |
| Private Training | 12,341 |
| Total | 19,907 |
| Open University | 0 |
| Conventional Universities | 9,913 |
| Government training | 0 |
| Private Training | 10,320 |
| Total | 20,233 |
