This file summaries a couple of patterns for course selection of the MPP students (both PG and TG). Data used here obtained by EA from the Curriculum department at the UCD. The list of offered courses for the Taught MPP program obtained from the MPP program webpage (on 05/11/2025).

STEP 1 Firstly, I load the yearly data and bind all years together. At this stage I do not differentiate between PG and TG students.

Having put all the samples together, the complete dataset contains be 584 observations.

## # A tibble: 6 × 9
##   `Module Code` `Module Title`  `Student ID` `Additional ID` Name  `Module Type`
##   <chr>         <chr>           <chr>        <lgl>           <chr> <chr>        
## 1 ECON41840     Microeconomics  19324293     NA              Cowa… Option       
## 2 ECON42190     Health and Wel… 19324293     NA              Cowa… Option       
## 3 ECON42190     Health and Wel… 23205515     NA              Kada… Option       
## 4 ECON42190     Health and Wel… 23205515     NA              Kada… Option       
## 5 ECON42360     Energy Economi… 19324293     NA              Cowa… Option       
## 6 ECON42560     Behavioural Ec… 23205096     NA              Thak… Elective     
## # ℹ 3 more variables: `Module Status` <chr>, year <dbl>, program_type <chr>

STEP 2

I assume the following: Provisional Enrollment / Web Registered / Registered essentially represent the same status of enrollment, with some variance which is hardly relevant for the selection of the module and preferences of the students by the looks of it. Next, I drop cases of repeated assessments/resits and second registration. It seems that these categories rather capture student performance than preferences for modules.

This leaves me with 570 entries for students across PG/ MPP programs for 2023 and 2024 & MPP students for 2025.

##  all_dt$registration   n percent
##           registered 570       1

STEP 3

Count a plot the number of students enrolled across all the modules by year.

Step 4

Here, I filter out core modules as well as thesis, and internship. Thereafter, I load the list of ALL OFFERED modules using information on the MPP webpage, and identify those that were not chosen by the MPP students in the last 3 years at all.

–> To summarise the findings : 7 courses were not chosen by the students AT ALL. See the table summarizing the module details and applicable streams below.

## [1] "course_identifier" "course_title"      "trimester"        
## [4] "credits"           "type"              "stream_1"         
## [7] "stream_2"          "stream_3"
Table 1. Modules that have not been selected in the last 3 years
Code Title Type Stream1 Stream2 Stream3
ECON42600 Development Economics Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA
GEOG40860 Practical Environmental Assessment Option Environmental Policy Stream Urban Policy Stream NA
POL42540 Applied Data Wrangling and Visualisation Option Research Stream NA NA
SOC40640 Social Simulation: Methods and Models Option Research Stream NA NA
STAT40150 Multivariate Analysis Option Research Stream NA NA
GEOG41050 Globalization Empire and Race: Economic Geography Option Urban Policy Stream NA NA
POL41020 Politics of Human Rights Option Citizenship Stream NA NA

STEP 5

Next, I identify modules which were chosen by less than 5 students over the course of the 3 years presented in the data. This will capture low popularity modules across the years. The Figure below outlines the selection by stream. The details are further provided by the table that followed.

Table 2. Modules with low enrollment (<=5 people) over 3 years
Code Title Type Stream1 Stream2 Stream3 N of students
ECON41840 Microeconomics Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 1
ECON42660 Behavioural Economics Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 1
ENVP40100 Environmental & Behavioural Economics Option Economics Policy Stream Environmental Policy Stream NA 3
ECON42190 Health and Welfare Economics Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 3
ECON42360 Energy Economics and Policy Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 3
ECON42650 Experiments in Economics Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 1
HRM40770 International HRM Option Economics Policy Stream EU Policy Stream NA 3
POL40370 International Political Economy Option Economics Policy Stream NA NA 2
LAW40120 Foundations of Environmental Law Option Environmental Policy Stream EU Policy Stream Regulatory Governance Stream 2
ENVP40040 Sustainability Lab Option Environmental Policy Stream NA NA 3
LAW40780 Law of the ECHR Option EU Policy Stream NA NA 1
LAW41040 Law and Governance of the EU Option EU Policy Stream NA NA 3
POL40970 Politics of European Governance Option EU Policy Stream NA NA 4
LAW40360 Advanced Issues in European Competition Law Option EU Policy Stream NA NA 1
POL40540 Comparative European Politics Option EU Policy Stream NA NA 2
LAW41150 Online Regulation Option Regulatory Governance Stream NA NA 4
IS40840 Data & Society Option Research Stream NA NA 4
POL41640 Qualitative Research Methods for Political Science Option Research Stream NA NA 4
POL42050 Quantitative Text Analysis Option Research Stream NA NA 1
SOC40330 Workshop in Qualitative Research Option Research Stream NA NA 1
SPOL40470 Comparing Healthcare Systems Option Community-Drugs-Health Stream NA NA 5
SPOL41130 Drugs & Drug Policy Option Community-Drugs-Health Stream NA NA 2
PHPS40300 Health Promotion Option Community-Drugs-Health Stream NA NA 3
GEOG40970 Critical Geographies: Spatialising Power and Inequalities Option Urban Policy Stream Citizenship Stream NA 5
PLAN4000W Gov the City: Admin & Transp Option Urban Policy Stream NA NA 2
PLAN40390 Sustainable Cities Option Urban Policy Stream NA NA 4
LAW40640 Advances in Criminological Theory Option Citizenship Stream NA NA 4
LAW42280 International Refugee Law Option Citizenship Stream NA NA 2
LAW40620 The Prison: Contemporary Challenges Option Citizenship Stream NA NA 2