Originally Posted by The Irish Times

Those studying arts far outnumber any other discipline, accounting for 25 per cent of all students.

The largest programme, the Bachelor of Arts degree in UCD, accepted 1,232 new students in 2009.

Arts faculties in the NUI universities in Cork, Galway and Maynooth offer about 1,000 places each. Trinity, University of Limerick, the colleges of education and a number of the fee-paying private colleges also offer comprehensive programmes.

Broad-ranging business degrees – which currently require about 430 points – could also see a surge in demand.

Originally Posted by HanleyS

I have a lot of time for the Arts and would love to go back and study for a while. Is it really appropriate in these straitened times though for 25% of our tertiary level students to be studying for Arts degrees? Or for a significant portion to be studying for business degrees?

Originally Posted by stringjack

Well, yes. Providing those courses costs less...

Originally Posted by PrinceMax

You learn a lot of stuff in an Arts degree that can be applied to other areas. Such as research skills, writing skills. + They're dirt cheap to provide. It doesn't cost much more for a History lecturer, or similar, to lecture a class of 100 or 300. The occasional seminar that exists is done by someone doing a PHD so, not much extra cost there. Very few contact hours. Better than having people sitting on the dole queues. The cost to the exchequer is minimal as the state doesn't provide significant funding for people to study.

Originally Posted by HanleyS

Do you think they offer a good return on investment or do you think that the arts need to be supported to this level?

Originally Posted by stringjack

*shrugs* I don't know. (Also, what proportion of Arts degrees involve studying the arts?)

Originally Posted by jmcc

At the risk of a very old joke, often these course main function is to train people to draw the dole. But they do serve a useful function of keeping people who would otherwise end up on the dole off the streets.

Regards...jmcc

Originally Posted by HanleyS

Wouldn't it be better though if while they were off the streets they were training for a career?

Originally Posted by jmcc

At the risk of a very old joke, often these course main function is to train people to draw the dole. But they do serve a useful function of keeping people who would otherwise end up on the dole off the streets.

Regards...jmcc