Unit Report
Head: Dr Dennis Bankcroft

• Official Opening of new building by President Mary McAleese, 14 June 2001.
• An International conference on Open Distance Learning in the eLearning Age was held on 15th June, 2001.
• New online Masters in Internet Systems was launched with 55 students.

Degree/Diploma in Information Technology
The B.Sc in Information Technology now has one thousand and sixty three (1063) registered students at study centres throughout Ireland. The course was devised and is presented on a co-operative basis. Study centres for students are provided in co-operation with Dublin City University; University College Cork; the University of Limerick; NUI, Galway and the Institutes of Technology at Athlone, Dundalk, Sligo, Tallaght and Waterford.

The eleventh cohort of graduates qualified for the award of B.Sc. in Information Technology earlier this year. At the examinations held in November 2000 sixty two (62) students fulfilled the requirements for the award of a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology - twelve (12) with first class honours and twenty (20) with higher second class honours. This brings the number of degrees awarded to date to seven hundred and seventy nine (779). Eighty seven (87) other students fulfilled the requirements for the award of a diploma - five (5) with distinction, and nineteen (19) with credit. This brings the total of diplomas awarded to date to one thousand, one hundred and forty nine (1149).

Humanities Degree
The Bachelor of Arts degree has been designed and developed by a Course Team comprising representatives of Dublin City University (DCU), NUI Maynooth, Trinity College Dublin (TCD), NUI Cork, NUI Dublin, NUI Galway and the University of Limerick (UL). The Academic Liaison Board, comprising representatives from each of the awarding universities, has been established to take responsibility for the academic conduct of the programme, including admission requirements, examinations, marks and standards, nomination of external examiners and recommendations for the award of a degree.

The Degree is awarded through DCU, NUI Maynooth, TCD, NUI Cork, NUI Galway and UL. Students register with the university of their choice. They study a common course supported by the National Distance Education Centre and attend at study centres normally located in the participating universities. A total of thirty modules in History, Literature, Philosophy, Psychology and Sociology were presented in 2000/2001. Eight hundred and seventy (870) students are currently registered on the programme in study centres located in DCU, NUI Maynooth, NUI Cork, NUI Galway, TCD, UL, and Waterford IT. One hundred and two (102) students graduated with the Bachelor of Arts in the November 2000 diet of examinations and a further seventy nine (79) students were awarded the Diploma in Arts.

Graduate Programme
Two different Masters Programmes are offered as part of the graduate programme. The longer running of the programmes is the Management and Applications of IT in Accounting. The Programme is offered at Graduate Certificate, Graduate Diploma and Masters of Science level. One hundred and seventy three (173) students were enrolled for the programme in 2001, including forty (40) students studying towards an MSc with nineteen (19) students graduating with a Masters of Science in the academic year 2000/2001.

A second Graduate Programme, entitled the Management of Operations, was introduced for the Academic Year 1997/98. This programme was developed in conjunction with the DCU Business School and the University of Ulster. It is offered at two levels, Diploma and Masters of Science. There were seventy-nine (79) students registered for the programme during 2000/2001, fourteen (14) of these at Masters level. Four (4) students graduated with a Masters of Science during 2000/2001 and a further student graduated with a graduate diploma.

Bachelor of Nursing Studies
The Bachelor of Nursing Studies programme through distance education began in 1997. The degree has been designed and developed to meet the needs of nurses throughout Ireland and allows registered nurses the opportunity to gain a degree regardless of location, employment or personal circumstances. The degree was developed by a Course Team consisting of representatives of the profession and other universities and in co-operation with An Bord Altranais.

The programme enables registered nurses to advance their knowledge of the profession of nursing in the context of changing definitions of health care to develop competence in the provision of a cost effective quality service to a variety of clients in hospitals and in the community. Students must be eligible for registration with An Bord Altranais and individual nurses qualifications are assessed through APCL (Accreditation of Prior Certificated Learning).

A further thirty-two (32) students graduated in March 2001. There are now over 80 graduates from the programme.

Master of Science in Internet Systems
This innovative new programme - delivered via the internet - commenced its pilot programme in June 2000 with fifty-five students (55).