Differences in the Irish Education System

Moving to a foreign country is already a daunting task, but when you add on adjusting to a completely new education system, it can be overwhelming. Especially when you are constantly hearing about Trinity College Dublin’s being the number one university in Ireland and 101^st in the world. Knowing that many famous intellectuals graduated from Trinity, I began to second guess my skills and knowledge. However, do not let this scare you off! After attending my modules (what they call classes) for almost 5 weeks now, I feel comfortable in my classes and believe that if you attend orientation and consistently attend your modules, you’ll be just fine!

Before I talk about the teaching style and my workload at Trinity, let’s first talk about the module enrollment process. For starters, you will not be able to enroll in your modules or even see the timetables (what they call the meeting times) for these courses until orientation, or specifically, a week before you start school. This is drastically different compared to Ohio State, where I could plan my schedule months in advance and change it around as much as I wanted to! Along with that, Trinity does not yet have a centralized module enrollment database, although they have said they are working it, so as of now you cannot search for all their courses in one place and will instead have to look on each department’s webpage for module information. Finally, once I was able to enroll in my modules, I had to fill out a form with my desired modules listed, submit it, wait up to 48 hours for it to be approved and processed, and then it showed up on my account (p.s. Trinity uses a platform called Blackboard instead of Carmen Canvas, but it’s easy to navigate). Two final points I think are important to mention about module enrollment at Trinity is that you do have a 2-week grace period once classes start to add/drop courses, so that’s helpful in case you do not like a course. Also, when enrolling in modules, I was informed that I was limited to selecting modules within the departments I selected/were admitted to on my Trinity application and those cannot be changed, so choose wisely!

My classes at Trinity have approximately 40-120 students each which may be smaller than what some are used to at Ohio State. This is due to Trinity having a little over 16,000 students compared to OSU, which has over 65,000 students. With a smaller campus, that also means that each module will likely only have one section to choose from ​for the semester. However, despite a smaller population, the student body is very diverse, with over 28% of students coming from outside Ireland. This shows in my group projects, where I have been paired with people from the US, Ireland, France, Poland, Italy, Finland, and more! It’s fascinating to hear different perspectives based on each person’s background and to see the cultural differences in group interactions.

Now let’s talk about my modules and the teaching style at Trinity! I am taking 5 courses: Irish Company and Business Law, Social Entrepreneurship, Sustainability Entrepreneurship, Language and Communication in the Digital Age, and Hundred Years War c. 1337-1453. I have really enjoyed my courses so far! The first thing I noticed about classes at Trinity is that your final grade generally consists of only 1 or a few major assignments (i.e., group project, essay, or final exam). This took some getting used to because, at Ohio State, I am used to having weekly homework assignments, discussion boards, quizzes, multiple exams, essays, and group projects. This could be beneficial for some who are constantly thinking about the next deadline coming up. On the other hand, this “freedom,” especially at the beginning of the semester, can easily cause serious procrastination because everything does not seem urgent. However, while you do not usually have homework due every week, you are still expected to read the weekly readings and watch the associated videos to prepare for lectures. With that, it also becomes apparent that Trinity values personal responsibility and independence. My professors do not constantly remind us to check the weekly materials, so I have found it important to create a to-do list at the beginning of each week. However, my professors are very passionate in their fields and are easily accessible if I do have any questions!

The last major difference is that while Trinity allows grades up to 100%, some professors will tell you that it is nearly impossible to get over 70% on assignments in their classes, and that anything over 70% is exceptional, over 60% is great, over 50% is good, and so on. This took me by surprise when I submitted a journal entry for one of my classes that I felt was well-researched and written and ended up getting an 85% on it. While this would be a “B” at OSU and not bad at all, I was expecting a higher grade. I was slightly confused until my professor came up to me the next class and talked about how much they enjoyed reading my journal entry and how I did a wonderful job on connecting the reading materials with my personal experience. It takes some getting used to but don’t get too nervous, as Ohio State is aware of Trinity’s grading structure, and will transfer your grades back appropriately.

For reference to a typical schedule at Trinity, below is my weekly module schedule and a brief breakdown of the grading for each course: