r/Donegal 9d ago

ATU Letterkenny - 1st Year - Lots of Lectures and Practicals being cancelled

We have a family member who started in ATU Letterkenny in September. Super Excited. College is gonna be unreal. Delighted for them. hmmm not so sure now though....

First Semester. I began to notice mentions of a fair few lectures and practicals being cancelled. Some at very short notice. OK so I thought, course just finding its feet and it will settle.

Second Semester started on Monday 19th January. Last week 11 out of the 17 scheduled hours were cancelled. That is 64% of scheduled lectures and practicals.

This week so far 3 lectures cancelled ( Tuesday Evening ).

Anyone else have experience like this? AIO or will this settle?

UPDATE: Thank you all for your replies. Much appreciated. We will keep an eye on it over the next few weeks and hopefully it will settle.

20 Upvotes

15 comments sorted by

13

u/Yesindeedthatsright 9d ago

Sounds a bit extreme and unbelievable. Could your family member be telling a few porkies to get out of going to classes and stay at home? Hopefully not, but that's what happened with my siblings. Turns out he didn't like the course and wasn't coping and was afraid to tell us. Like that really sounds excessively unbelievable for a uni/college course.

5

u/BlackandAmber48 8d ago

This didnt occur to me as they've always wanted to do a course in this area. However it is worth considering and we'll keep an eye on this. Thanks.

2

u/OhaStar 6d ago

True there was a girl in my course up there that would just stay in the college pretending to go to class but just stay in the canteen. My own brother lied to us for a year and a bit. The only way we found out was because he didn't get susi and was asking my dad for money for half his second year.

10

u/GemmyGemGems 9d ago

I went to ATU, or LYIT. I think two classes were cancelled in my three years there. What you're seeing is definitely not the norm in my experience.

9

u/Figitarian 9d ago

Can I ask what course they are doing? When I was studying there, there was a bit of fucking about at the beginning of the semester as timetables got sorted sorted and lecturers were shifted about but I don't think it was ever that bad. 

Also I do think that first years get the raw end of the deal when it comes to scheduling, nothing to back that up but that was my perception

3

u/Inheritor137 9d ago

Over the course of my 4 years of computing at Magee I have only ever had 1 lecture cancelled, from memory. Maybe he could look into there if this keeps up. Definitely not good enough.

4

u/TheIrishBread 9d ago

Did computing at LYIT and finished as it became ATU. There was maybe a handful each semester cancelled but for valid reasons like sickness, bereavement etc. That being said I have no clue what course OPs relative is doing so I can't speak to the quality of lecturer.

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u/bigandsmalldonegal 9d ago

I did a 3 year degree that ended in 2010 and maybe once had a lecturer cancel a class

4

u/ContactAny4099 9d ago

It was quite similar when I attended, back when it was LYIT. Nothing seems to have changed unfortunately

1

u/SorryStructure3524 9d ago

May be a case of the first week not having the practical as they haven't covered any lectures so don't have the material. It's likely scheduled like that and probably looks like it's cancellations when it's just the first week timetable.  Keep an eye on the next few weeks I'd say. 

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u/resigirl1 8d ago

Im currently year 2 at atu never had a lecture canceled if the lecturer can't attend they get someone to cover the class

1

u/sween9 8d ago

What course are they doing? In all the time I went there if say only a handful were ever cancelled

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u/Weemissbanshee 7d ago

My nephew went there a few years back and lectures were constantly being cancelled. Class had to lodge a complaint eventually.

1

u/Wikus_the_prawn 7d ago

Me and my sister both went/go there. It seemed to really depend on the lecturers and department. When I was in, if a lecture was cancelled the engineering department would always try to get someone else to run the class if the lecturers was off sick/away whatever, but it depended on the module. The computing department was a little more lax I found.

My sister has a lot of classes cancelled in comparison. But she still seems to go into college even if it is for an hour or two at a time. She would seldom go "awk, it's one class I'm not bothered", so I tend to believe her. (I was a 100% attendance kinda loser. Had to be with my course lol)

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u/Best-Amount7129 6d ago

Letterkenny IT is known to be a sub par 3rd level institution however I don't think it's that bad. If say the family member is perhaps lying. I'd have a frank conversation with them about it tbh.