Nienke van Etten, who enrolled in the college two years ago, has claimed she has been forced to take up new subjects during her final year after UCD decided to discontinue Early Irish as a degree subject. She has criticised the university and claimed that she is unsure of what degree she will now be awarded after her examinations next May.

Up until this year, UCD employed two Early Irish lecturers. However, the college made the decision to drop the subject as a degree and did not renew the contract of one lecturer, Gerald Manning.

While students can still study Early Irish as part of another degree, modules taught by Manning are no longer available, which has forced some final-year students to take up new modules at short notice.

A spokesman for UCD said that changes to the degree were part of a restructuring programme of the School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics.

While Early Irish had been discontinued as a degree programme, other subjects had been expanded as part of the programme of "reinvigorating" the school.

A maximum of four finalyear students have been affected by the recent decision, he added.

One of those, van Etten, has expressed her disappointment with the decision not to renew Manning's contract while there are finalyear students still in the programme. While the students can still study Early Irish modules offered by the remaining lecturer, those taught by Manning are no longer available.

"I chose UCD, " van Etten told UCD's student newspaper, The College Tribune. "I've come all the way from the Netherlands to do this degree. . . I came to UCD to do Early Irish [and] now I don't even know what my degree will be in."

Van Etten claimed students were being forced to take up subjects that they have never before studied just months before their final-year examinations.

Manning is currently taking a case against UCD in the Labour Court after his temporary contract was not renewed.

The UCD spokesman confirmed that Early Irish is no longer being offered as a degree subject to first- and second-year students but has instead been incorporated into other degree programmes.

The recent creation of a new professorship in the school shows the university's committment towards expanding Irish studies, said the spokesman.