1. Maynooth University The New Curriculum
Alison Hood
Dean of Teaching and Learning
5 September 2017

2. The Maynooth Education
Flexibility and Choice
Customize your degree
Choice of how many subjects, then specialize
Electives in second year
Safety Nets
Carry a deficit (up to 10 credits)
Summer offerings
Critical Skills

3. The Maynooth Education
Data extracted following Summer examinations prior to August supplemental examinations.

4. Critical Skills
Universal Critical Skills (taken by the majority of students: 444)
Critical Skills for Social Science
Social Analysis of Everyday Life
Exploring the Power of Languages
Great Ideas
Globalization
Exploring Culture
New offerings for 2017–18:
Critical Skills for Science
Books, Reading, & Writing in Medieval Ireland
How to think creatively, innovate, and solve problems

5. Critical Skills: Results
Piloted in 2015–16 (for additional credit)
Huge uptake of nearly 800 students for first year of rollout in 2016–17, making it the single largest first-year subject.
Very high retention rate (3.5% reduction in overall numbers for semester II)
Highly positive student feedback (qualitative and quantitative).
Students taking Critical Skills had a significantly higher pass rate in their other subjects

6. Critical Skills: Student Feedback

7. Critical Skills: Student Feedback
‘This module gives you the opportunity to develop the core skills necessary for university. It is applicable to every subject choice and allows you to fully interact with every lecture. Critical skills has helped me acclimatize to academia at a university level. It has given me the confidence and skills to successfully approach the next the three years of my degree and further learning.’
Sarah Kildea, Second Year, Bcl Law And Arts

8. Students who took Critical Skills had a higher pass rate

9. Electives on offer 2017–18
Entrepreneurship, Creativity & Problem Solving (55)
Digital Humanities: Technology Transforming Cultural Heritage 
Science Communication: Science and the World (54)
Education Engagement and Equality 
Engaging with civil society: justice, welfare, and environment 
Film and Screen Studies (37)
Gender and Sexuality in Society and Culture (34)
Global Environmental Change 
Great Books 
War, Terrorism and Global Security (31)
Introduction to Philosophy, Theory of Mind (AI), and Logical Thinking 
Accounting in Society 
Perspectives of Poverty and Development 
Beginning Chinese, German, Spanish 
Creative Technologies and Digital Prototyping 
Working Creatively in Groups and Teams 
Community Education 
Irish Cultural Heritage* 
Continuing French, Spanish, German, nua-Ghaeilge, and Chinese
* new offering for coming year
Electives in bold text were most popular this year
450 students chose this option (as of January 2017)

10. Electives: Student Feedback
Why take Elective Streams?
Interest in Course Content
Broaden Knowledge Base
Be More Employable
Smaller Class Sizes