Students expressed frustration and annoyance at a disjointed module online enrollment process this afternoon.
Enrollment for senior fresh and junior sophister students was meant to begin at 2pm, having been pushed back from July. However when students went to log in, they were informed that it had been further delayed to 4pm.
However, many were unable to access the portal even at this time. While some students found the system allowed them access just after 3pm, many were not able to register until more than half an hour after the planned 4pm opening time.
The enrollment system for classes operates on a first-come-first-served basis, meaning that telling students registration would open at 4pm and then (in some cases) allowing access earlier than that may have caused students to miss out on their preferred classes.
Kate Klein, a junior sophister philosophy, politics, economics and sociology (PPES) student, said she woke up before 7am for registration as she is in Colorado at the moment, which is seven hours behind Ireland in August.
After being told about the two hour delay, she was able to gain access to the system 90 minutes later and entered her module choices. However, they subsequently “disappeared” from the portal. Klein emailed her course administrator for clarification, but at time of writing had not heard back.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised,” she said. “You would think the top university in Ireland would be able to do better, especially since every other university on the planet seems prepared for module selection every year.”
River Cooke, a junior sophister law student, was locked out of the system until 4:40pm. When they finally did gain access, the registration system was “completely indescribable”, and by the time they were able to enter their choices, one of their preferred modules was already full.
Cooke noted that this module will not be available to them next year due to the certification requirements of their course.
“I’ll be honest it is entirely in keeping with a college that has kept us in the dark and has had us running back and forth with conflicting information from different sources for the module selection to be delayed, and then to not open at the new time,” said Cooke.
“Nothing about this is surprising, and I can only, for my own sanity, choose to see the humour in the university’s bumbling incompetence which wouldn’t be fit for a Three Stooges sketch.”
Finghín Little, a junior sophister philosophy and maths student, was told by a classmate at 3:30pm that the portal had opened early. He entered his module choices at that time, but made a mistake. When Little went back to correct his registration, he found that the system had closed again.
He then had to wait until after 4:30pm for the system to re-admit him. Little noted that “the entire time, there was zero communication from Academic Registry or College authorities”.
When he was able to re-register, Little found that one of the maths modules he had been hoping to enroll in was absent, despite having been listed on his course’s module outline document.
He described the process as “more than a nuisance”, noting that it was more than two and a half hours between the time College had told students registration would open and when he was finished with the process.
He added: “If I had to be at work today I have no idea what I would have done.”
As of 5:25pm, some students were still unable to finalise their choices, being told by the system that they had not allocated an equal number of credits to each semester even when they had.
