UCD’s Masters in Engineering Management (MEM) announces a big reduction in the requirement for on-campus attendance
UCD’s part-time professional Masters in Engineering Management (MEM) has just announced a significant change in format which means students will see a big reduction in the requirement for on-campus attendance.
The new blended format is a meaningful response from the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture to the time pressures professional learners face, but without compromising the quality of the learning experience.
The MEM will still be designed for industry-based professionals on a part-time basis over two academic years, but the new format will see students on campus for one Friday per month. In the intervening weeks, classes will be delivered online on Friday afternoons and Saturday mornings*.
“The last fifteen months have been extremely challenging for everyone, including students and staff across the higher education sector. I think that we in UCD adapted well to the sudden move to online classes, in addition to gaining invaluable experience with every delivery of a module. I believe there is increased awareness and wider acceptance now of alternative methods of providing masters programmes for part-time, industry-based students, and the adoption of alternative delivery formats for these types of programmes has been accelerated.
We are very conscious that our MEM students find the peer-to-peer learning as valuable as that which they get from our academic staff, so the new delivery format will continue to strongly emphasise this feature of the programme through the on-campus classes. The online element will provide our students with material from the same lecturers, but without the need to travel, giving them greater flexibility in managing their busy professional and personal lives”.
This masters degree programme, which has been running for over 50 years, is unique in that it draws on resources from engineering, business and behavioural sciences to bridge the divide between engineering and management, providing students with the opportunity to broaden their horizons outside specialist technical areas. Graduates of the MEM quickly progress to leadership roles across the engineering and technology sectors, with many attributing the learning from the programme as pivotal to their career progression.
“Over the years, students from a wide range of engineering, science and technology backgrounds and industry sectors have participated in the MEM programme. The range of industry sectors represented include pharmaceutical, medical technology, ICT, manufacturing, food, energy, utilities, engineering consulting and services, transportation and public services.
Up to now, due to the on-campus nature of the programme, participants tended to be based in the greater Dublin area. As the Irish industrial landscape has evolved, an increasing number of companies in the engineering and technology sectors are located outside Dublin. We believe that this change in delivery format will appeal to these engineering professionals, as well as those who previously just could not commit to a masters programme that required on-campus attendance every Friday afternoon and Saturday morning.”
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* The programme is 12 weeks per term, but only 4 of these will now require on campus attendance. The remaining 8 weeks will be delivered in an online format.
On campus classes will take place in weeks 1, 4, 8, 12 of each term, while online classes will take place on the other weeks.
For the 2021-2022 academic year, the on campus dates are as follows:
Autumn Term: 17th September, 8th October, 5th November, 3rd December.
Spring Term: 21st January, 11th February, 25th March, 22nd April.
On these dates, classes will take place between 09.00-18.00 at the UCD Belfield campus.
Online classes will take place in weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11 of each term.
Autumn term: Week 2 is Friday/Saturday 24th/25th Sept and Week 11 is Friday/Saturday 26th/27th November.
Spring term: Week 2 is Friday/Saturday 28th/29th January and Week 11 is Friday/Saturday 15th/16th April.
Online classes will take place on Friday afternoons from 14.00 and Saturday mornings 09.00-13.00.