Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris has been left "extremely concerned" after social care students in a Dublin college discovered they will be unable to work as social care workers when they graduate.
Students in Dublin Business School's BA and BA (Hons) in Applied Social Care have said they feel "grossly misled" and left thousands out of pocket as the college has withdrawn their application to CORU, Ireland's health and social care professional regulator. This means graduates will be unable to become official social care workers, despite having a degree.
The college has said they withdrew the application when it became apparent it would not be successful due to CORU having "concerns about the extent to which the programme ensures the achievement of the Registration Board Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers".
Read more: Social care students in Dublin college left thousands out of pocket after degree 'becomes worthless'
Students now fear that their years' of hard work and thousands spent in fees will have all been for nothing. They have called on Minister Simon Harris to step in and help find a solution.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Further and Higher Education told Dublin Live that Minister Harris is "extremely concerned to learn of this matter" and "has been contacted by a number of students".
She said that although DBS is a private college and CORU is an independent regulator with no link to his department, Minister Harris has "asked his Department to assess the situation and work with Government colleagues to assist these students".
The course was established by DBS back in 2018 and received QQI validation, but has been in the process of being approved by CORU. However, students insist that while they knew the course was not yet approved by CORU, they were "told they would be CORU approved and that the college was going to get it".
Carmel Corrigan has just completed her second year of the BA programme and told Dublin Live if she continues with the course, she will be left with "nothing more than a Mickey Mouse degree".
She said: "Back in 2019 I had the worst year of my life. So come 2020 I knew I needed to do something different. I searched everywhere to find the right course for me and I spoke in depth with the administration at DBS about this course and it was the right fit for me.
"It was a struggle every year to get the money to pay DBS. It's the guts of €4,000 per year. It was hard work, between friends and family helping me out always with the intention of being able to get a great job when I finish and pay everybody back.
"It's horrendous to be in this situation, it's embarrassing. Some people are relying on this greatly and are up to their necks in debt trying to pay for it."
Carmel said herself and her peers were notified via email on August 9 that the course would not be receiving CORU approval. A virtual meeting for students with DBS staff was held last week, but they were "unable to answer their questions".
She said: "Basically, the only thing we got out of that meeting, which was two hours long, was that our degree will be a degree when we finish up but we will not be able to register with CORU. This effectively means we won't be able to get a job with our degree because you need to be recognised with CORU. It's worthless."
Carmel said that students were "absolutely given the impression" that the course would receive CORU approval. "We were told we would be CORU approved and that the college was going to get it, they were confident in this," she said.
She has had discussions with other colleges to see if it was possible for her to transfer, but was told they "will not accept any students from DBS or credits because it is not CORU approved". She added: "So we can't transfer, we would have to restart with another college.
"If it was possible we could finish our degree with DBS and get our level 7 and then move onto a Level 8 that was CORU approved, that could be an option for some people. But again, we don't know if this is possible. Some people want a refund, but we are not getting any answers when we ask these questions."
A spokeswoman for Dublin Business School told Dublin Live that BA/BA Hons in Applied Social Care "provides both theoretical and practical aspects of working in a social care environment".
She continued: "The programme is fully accredited by Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), but is not yet approved by CORU. The CORU Review Panel had concerns about the extent to which the programme ensures the achievement of the Registration Board Standards of Proficiency for Social Care Workers and advised that the timeframe of the Programme Approval process could not accommodate the submission of the changes required to address the issues.
"DBS therefore took the decision to not proceed with its current application and is currently working on a revised programme to be submitted for future Approval by both QQI and CORU. DBS intends that graduates of the revised programme will ultimately be able to receive CORU registration.
"Our current cohort is our top priority and we are fully committed to finding solutions that will allow our students to achieve their goal of working in the social care sector. We have contacted CORU seeking to engage with them in developing all possible options.
"We are writing to all incoming first year students that the course is not approved by CORU and this information is also published on our website."
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