FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

What are the Admission requirements? Leaving Certificate Grade D3 at Ordinary or Higher level in five subjects including Mathematics, and either English or Irish.

What are the most helpful Leaving Certificate subjects for this course?Agricultural Science and/or Biology, Chemistry, Accountancy, and Business Studies.

What are the typical student numbers in first year? First year course/class size: 20. Smaller classes play a key role in ensuring student success.

Will I get to work in a Horticultural Enterprise during my course? Yes. The latter part of your second year (semester 4) will be an industry placement to learn from the best of Irish and/or International Horticulturists. We have existing placement partners in the USA, Europe, and the UK as well as Ireland.

Where will my course be delivered? The first year of the course students spend three days in Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College and two days in CIT campus per week. Outside of Horticulture placement, three or more days are spent in CIT per week for the remainder of the course.

What skills will I gain? This course prepares you with a broad range of skills from both the Amenity and Commercial Horticultural sectors. Propagating, growing and maintaining healthy food and ornamental plants using conventional and organic approaches efficiently in an industry accepted cost effective manner are some of the skills that you can bring forward into your career. Financial, marketing and management skills combine with technical Horticultural skills obtained to allow faster access to Horticultural Industry management level positions.

What is enjoyable about this course? The course has a variety of subjects, projects and horticultural visits from very diverse content reflecting the Science, Business and Art of the Horticulture Industry itself. Some students love the area of Landscape Design and visiting world renowned large local gardens, others field and glasshouse production of food or ornamental products.

HORTICULTURE

The term horticulture is described as the science or art of cultivating fruits, vegetables, flowers or ornamental plants.The modern horticulture industry is much broader than this definition and Irish horticulture can be divided into commercial and amenity sectors.

The Commercial sector is involved with the production of food crops and added value products such as fruits, vegetables and mushrooms in the field or under protection and of ornamental products such as trees, shrubs and bedding plants. The Amenity sector includes Garden Centre and DIY retailing, Landscape Design, Construction and Maintenance, the Turf Grass industry (golf course, other sports turf, etc.), the development and overseeing of public parks and gardens, roadside plantings, ecological conservation, sustainability and heritage projects.

ENQUIRIES TO

Joseph Croke,Department of Biological Sciences, CITT: +353 (0) 21 433 5885E: joseph.croke@cit.ie

Catherine MurphyDepartment of Accounting & Information Systems, CITT: +353 (0) 21 433 5805 / 433 5920E: catherine.murphy@cit.ie

http://business.cit.ie

BACHELOR OFSCIENCE (HONOURS)

IN HORTICULTURE

BSc in Horticulture CR 011

YEAR 1

Semester 1 (Sept – Dec)Creativity, Innovation & TeamworkLand Finance and Policy 1Plant PropagationLand Mechanisation 1Introduction to HorticultureBotany

Semester 2 (Feb – May)Land Finance and Policy 2IT & MathsGreenhouses, Soils & MediaTurf Grass TechnologyLandscape Planning & ConstructionOrganic & Biodynamic Horticulture

YEAR 2

Semester 3 (Sept – Dec)Marketing Principles and PracticeLand Business ManagementNursery Stock ProductionFood & Environmental ScienceMarket GardeningElectivesConsumer Behaviour FoundationGeneral and Inorganic ChemistryArchitectural Technology 1Free Choice Module

Semester 4 (Feb – May)Work Placement

STUDENT PROFILEWHY STUDY HORTICULTURE AT CIT?

Unrivalled hybridization of business, science and commercial expertise brought by three partners delivering the course, the Departments of Accounting and Information Systems, CIT; Department of Biological Sciences, CIT; and Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College. Excellent glasshouse and outdoor facilitates are utilised in Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College, combined with laboratories in the Department of Biological Sciences at CIT and business expertise from the Department of Accounting & Information Systems.

In addition, the greater Cork area has long been a centre of horticultural excellence in many areas of Commercial (e.g. Organic Food) and Amenity Horticulture sectors (e.g. Large Gardens). It is generally agreed that many of the horticultural goods and services that we are currently importing have the potential to be produced locally, reducing their carbon footprint and keeping wealth, employment and expertise at home. Previous approaches have not achieved this objective and it is our goal to provide students with a wealth of knowledge and expertise to make this change.

Students attend both Cork Institute of Technology and Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College throughout the course.

l In Year 1, students spend three days in Clonakilty and two day in CIT.

l In Year 2, the students typically spend two days in Clonakilty and three days in CIT.

l In Year 3 of the programme, students typically spend four days in CIT and one day in Clonakilty.

Timetables vary slightly from one semester to the next and students must be flexible in terms of travel arrangements.

FURTHER STUDIES

Suitably qualified graduates from the BSc. in Horticulture are eligible to apply for entry to the one year add-on> Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Horticulture.

Graduates of the programme can also pursue specialisations in areas such as Botany, Biotechnology and Business Management with other Higher Education Institutes in Ireland and overseas.

I am studying the Bachelor of Science in Horticulture and I have finished a very enjoyable and interesting first year. I am very interested in Landscape Architecture and I found the Landscape Planning and Construction module extremely interesting as it opened new doors on my perspective of what Horticulture has to offer. I also very much enjoyed the many Horticultural visits to Fota and Lisselan Gardens and the Fruit Vegetable, Organic and Nursery enterprises amongst others.

In the second year of the course we spend three days at CIT campus during the first semester. The remaining two days are spent in market gardening and nursery stock modules at Teagasc Clonakilty Agricultural College.

The class is looking forward to industry placements in semester two where we can obtain the much sought after business experience that employers value highly. We expect to learn a lot about the industry and particularly the areas in which we are interested as well as making industry contacts for our future careers. A few of the class are going abroad for their placements and should enjoy seeing the world as well as gaining practical experience.

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

> Garden Centre Manager

> Organic Producer of Vegetables or Fruit

> Greens Keeper

> Landscape Construction Manager

> Market Gardener

> Landscape Designer

> Plant Propagator

> Researcher

> Nursery/Floral Production Manager

IZABELA ANNA ZAWADZKA

YEAR 3

Semester 5 (Sept – Dec)Agri Financial Management 1Irish Legal SystemManagement Concepts and PracticePlant Patogens & PestsPlant BiotechnologyElectivesProtecting Rural EnvironmentsMedicinal use of herbsHuman Resources Management 1Free Choice Module

Semester 6 (Feb – May)Agri Financial Management 2Contract & Tort LawAgribusiness EnterpriseQuality Management Systems 1Sustainable AgricultureElectivesSelling and SalesEthnobotanyMedicinal indications of herbsCS1 Construction GraphicsFree Choice Module

YEAR 4 (Add on Honours Degree)

Semester 7 (Sept - Dec)Strategic Finance for Agribusiness Agribusiness Innovation Project - Research Phase ElectivesPlantsmanshipPlant Breeding Principles of NutritionNatural ProductsFree Choice Module Marketing Research 1Research Skills

Semester 8 (Feb - May)Strategic Agribusiness Agribusiness Supply Chains Nutrition and Health Project Electives (Choose 1)FloriculturePharmacognosy & Phytochemistry

Please visit http://m

odules.cit.ie/cr01

1 for detailed m

odule information