Expand+Enrolment & General Information
Students are encouraged to enrol as early as possible. If you enrol late, the class may be full or may have been cancelled due to low numbers.

You can enrol in person (at the Access and Lifelong Learning Centre i...

Hide-Enrolment & General Information
Students are encouraged to enrol as early as possible. If you enrol late, the class may be full or may have been cancelled due to low numbers.

You can enrol in person (at the Access and Lifelong Learning Centre in the James Joyce Library Building), Monday - Friday 9.00am - 1.00pm and 2.00pm - 5.00pm.

Enrol by credit or debit car over the phone (01) 716 7123 or online www.ucd.ie/all/study

The course below will be available for Spring, and will be listed in more detail in our Spring programme. You can book for either term from August 8th 2017.

Cancellations
Lifelong Learning courses are offered subject to sufficient numbers. Where there are insufficient registrations, the course will be withdrawn.

Expand+Introduction
Our Lifelong Learning courses cover a range of topics from Art History through to History, Literature, Philosophy and Writing. The courses are open to all and provide a chance to explore a subject without concerns about assessment. Thes...

Hide-Introduction
Our Lifelong Learning courses cover a range of topics from Art History through to History, Literature, Philosophy and Writing. The courses are open to all and provide a chance to explore a subject without concerns about assessment. These courses are part of a long tradition in University College Dublin (UCD), and follow the legacy of the university’s founder Cardinal John Henry Newman, who wished to make higher level education accessible to a broad sweep of Irish people.

Today, UCD remains committed to widening participation in higher education, in all its forms, whether to accredited formal learning programmes or informal open learning provision. We believe the rich intellectual resources of the university should be available to all. Our commitment is reaffirmed when we hear the important role learning plays in enhancing people’s lives, whether through providing intellectual stimulus and new friendships, or as an opportunity to sample a topic before further study.

The programme is developed in collaboration with tutors, UCD schools and the broader UCD community. Student feedback informs the type of courses we offer and the style of teaching promoted. Student evaluations have indicated that learning is enhanced through discussion, group work and participative approaches, and by getting out and about to learn on the move. Many of our courses now include field trips or gallery visits, which bring course material to life and provide a social learning opportunity. Further course details are available online at www.ucd.ie/all/study.

We hope you find a course that suits your interests!

Your Tutors
UCD Access and Lifelong Learning is privileged to work with a highly expert and committed group of tutors who are recruited not just on the basis of their subject expertise, but also for their demonstrated interest in adult learning. You can read about your tutor’s qualifications and areas of expertise online where we have included a short tutor biography alongside the course information.

Reading & Booklists
Booklists are available online alongside course descriptions. For the majority of courses, the booklist contains suggested reading for those interested in investigating the subject further. Your tutor can guide you as to which reading might be most suitable.

Booklists for literature students are more critical as classes are based on particular set texts. We recommend that initially you acquire just the first text listed as the list will be discussed with your tutor in class.

Expand+This course examines the life and work of Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), and seeks to demystify Beckett’s art, which has garnered a reputation as serious and obscure. Students will learn how to appreciate Beckett’s drama, as ...

Hide-This course examines the life and work of Irish playwright and author Samuel Beckett (1906-1989), and seeks to demystify Beckett’s art, which has garnered a reputation as serious and obscure. Students will learn how to appreciate Beckett’s drama, as well as how to make sense of it. Particularly of interest to the course is the way in which Beckett’s private life, as well as major world events, had a profound impact on his literary career.

Samuel Beckett has a reputation as a difficult, avant-garde artist, but why has he been so popular with readers and theatre-goers the world over since the 1950s? The answer is that Beckett vividly speaks to the absurdity, comedy and desolation of the human condition in a way that transcends time. This eight-week module is designed for students who are curious about the mystique surrounding Samuel Beckett (as well as the reasons for his cultural importance), and will provide students with strategies for “making sense” of his abstract, challenging, and often hilarious art, incorporating elements of his biography, historical events, the philosophy in which he was interested, and the paintings he admired during his life. The course will examine and explain his most famous and critically-acclaimed plays in their artistic and historical contexts, including Waiting For Godot, Krapp’s Last Tape, Happy Days, and Not I, as well as some of his shorter fiction, making the case for Beckett’s importance, influence, and timelessness in the Ireland of today.