"How do you get an Arts students off your front door step? Pay him for your pizza". This is the sort of joke I became accustomed to during my time as a student as many of my peers (non-Arts students) took a playful swipe at their counterparts studying the social sciences. Jokes like this did the rounds and were usually batted away by our Arts friends like water of a ducks back. However with the re-introduction of fees seemingly just around the corner it made me stop and think is there some validity in these seemingly harmless gags.
For example entry into the Bachelor of Arts Degree at Univeristy College Cork in 2008 was a meagre 340 points. Now the maths behind this are quite staggering! It means a student need only get two C3 grades and 4 D1 grades (all at higher level) to gain entry into the programme. Hardly a example of acadmic excellence! In fact according to the Central Applications Office a score of 340 ranks somewhere between 45% to 70% in terms of student achievement with it more like being closer to the 45% mark given the CAOs cuts-off. This means that roughly 50% of Leaving Cert graduates are beter than the participants on the Arts course.
Arts has notoriously poor attendance rates and given the evidence above no wonder. Most participants have not demonstrated a willingness to advance themselves academically and coast along at the expense of the State for three or more years. A return to fees is probably not the answer to this problem but limiting places is. A reduction in the number of places will drive the points for the course up doing two things; firstly the quality of student will improve dramatically and secondly only those that have a genuine interest in the social sciences will obtain places.
There are plenty of excellent Arts students out there the problem is they are being smoothered by the uninterested masses. No to fees, yes to a reduction in college places!
