Plans & Schemes, Schemes & Plans

[gothwalk]

It seems like a good time to post plans for the next while.

The major thing I would like to do this year is to go back to college, and do English and some other subject in UCD's modular evening courses. The "some other subject" is under debate, but at present in order of priority, it goes: Geography, Medieval History, Any Other History. This is all dependent, however, on the no-college-fees things extending to the modular course, and there are indications that that's not the case. If it doesn't cover that course, then it's simply not affordable, and that's it. It says on UCD's Horizons FAQ that "at present, part-time students are not funded by Government", which is not encouraging. And the Department of Education and Science site (after considerable searching) says "Under the free fees initiative, the DES meets the tuition fees of eligible students who are attending full-time undergraduate courses". I'm going to make a few phone calls tomorrow to confirm or deny this.

However, one way or another, I do intend to take a break from running games (it'd be impossible while doing an evening course). While I'm not burning out on it yet, I can feel burnout lurking nearby. I'll finish out the currently running campaigns, and Age of Legends events will still take place occasionally, but I'll not be starting any new campaigns for about two to three years. After that, I plan to run some space opera material that I'll be developing in the meantime.

Not running games (which currently takes about 9 hours a week, on average, in running games, and around 25 in preparation and plotting) will free up a lot of time. If I'm not doing the course, I'll be moving some of that time toward A Political Education and dukestreet.org. Expect me to become opinionated on politics and even more opinionated on science fiction and fantasy.

And finally, we'll be going to India in September, for a bit over two weeks. I'm really looking forward to this, and already doing some research (which, as inannajones will tell you, is only just short of a miracle). It'll be just after our five-year wedding anniversary, too. I may be cheeky and set up a paypal "India Fund" that people can chuck some money into rather than giving us anniversary or birthday presents, because it's not going to be a cheap trip.

Comments

[microgirl.livejournal.com]

From my recollection of being in college, free fees were for full-time students and that's it. Thinking being part-time students are working and can therefore pay for themselves, whereas where are full-time students going to get the money?

Also, from my understanding, the evening courses in UCD, Trinity and the like are just that, evening courses (though I know in UCD you can do them with exams and thus get certificates, or just do them for the heck of it, but they're not actual degree things) and thus one has to pay for them like any other evening/adult education course one wants to do.

Now that was just taken from a look around their webpage when I was looking at doing some evening courses myself. Since I was looking at doing some just for the craic there may have been further or different information that I didn't see because it wasn't relevant to me.

I think I'm just saying don't get your hopes up, but it'd be nice to be wrong :)

[microgirl.livejournal.com]

Cool. That'd be the stuff I missed because I was just looking up their Adult Education stuff :)

[bastun-ie.livejournal.com]

TCD also have evening-only diploma and degree courses; though I'm also pretty sure evening courses, with or without a piece of paper at the end of it, are all fee-paying :-(

Have you thought about Open University? My boss is doing a distance education degree with them, with occasional tutorials in DCU, and their fees are apparently a lot cheaper than other places.

[gothwalk.livejournal.com]

OU are very, very awkward. I did a foundation course with them, but at this stage, they've lost applications on me twice, given me two different identities, and lost my payments on several occasions.While they've been very pleasant about sorting things out on the phone, some things can't be sorted - I was supposed to be doing another course with them as of last autumn, but by the time they realised they'd misidentified me again, the course had started.

[silja.livejournal.com]

Sorry to hear that you are not running the games anymore, I was just about to come talk to you about re-joining the game, but it's totally understandable, and I have to work some Friday evenings anyway.

[firsanthalas.livejournal.com]

If you are working then you pay for evening courses. If you already have a degree you also pay. It's shit but thats it. I'm doing an evening degree at the mo and have to pay in full. The adult education committee in Ireland are constantly at the government to review this situation as they see adult education (or further education, if you like)as becoming more the norm for society.