Students tell us that they love the flexibility of the UCD curriculum. This flexibility is made possible by the UCD Horizons Programme giving students the opportunity to explore areas that interest them beyond the scope of their course. This means that you can adapt your degree to your personal preferences. Each modular meets international standard making it much easier if you want to study abroad for part of your degree.
UCD Horizons is the name given to the modular and credit-based structure for taught degrees at UCD. While all UCD students are expected to become experts in their major degree subjects, the UCD Horizons structure also allows you to look beyond your specific degree, if you wish, to pursue other subjects that interest you.
This makes UCD Horizons much more flexible than traditional degree programmes and it means you can adapt the curriculum to your personal preferences. As our modular, credit-based system meets international standards, it also makes it much easier if you want to study abroad for part of your degree.
Each course is made up of 12 modules (60 credits) per year. Every module is worth five credits. Each year, you study 10 modules (or 50 credits) that are related to your course and the remaining 2 modules (or 10 credits) are ‘elective’ modules. These allow you to customise your own degree, so you can choose elective modules either from the course you are studying to deepen your knowledge or from any course we offer in UCD.
Among the wide range of choices available, you will see exciting Discovery modules that look at current and future issues of national and global importance. These Discovery modules will combine teaching and learning across more than one subject, in areas where UCD is leading on international research.
The diagram below shows the typical structure for one year of a UCD degree.
“I choose French as an elective because I want to use the language to pursue a career in international law. I found that studying French in UCD was much more interactive and approachable than Leaving Certificate French. I can now read books and have conversations in the language and I am confident enough to go on Erasmus to Toulouse next year. I plan to improve my fluency even further by taking two more French electives later in my degree!”
Katie O’Sullivan
BCL Law with Politics (Second year)
Horizon Modules Chosen: French For General Purpose 4
“I’ve always had a wide range of interests and the idea of being able to spend time every trimester pursuing my non-engineering passions really appealed to me. Through the Horizons programme, I’ve been able to study so many interesting subjects that I’ve always been curious about and brush up on my language skills at the same time. Studying these electives really helped to break up the intensity of my core subjects and provided an opportunity for me to make new friends outside my course.”
Shamira Bagnall Hare,
Mechanical Engineering
Horizon Modules Chosen: French, Chinese, Italian, Web Development, Astronomy
