‘A victim of its own success’? The Diploma in Addiction Studies at Trinity College Dublin

Abstract

This article reviews and reflects on the Diploma in Addiction Studies: a 1-year, full-time programme taught at the School of Social Work and Social Policy in Trinity College Dublin since the academic year 1983/1984, which has recently had its external funding withdrawn. The programme was aimed at multidisciplinary classes, including students from backgrounds in community responses to drug problems and in personal recovery from alcohol and drug problems. Drawing on its status as a university-based programme, Addiction Studies saw its function as educational rather than training, and saw itself as having particular value against the somewhat dogmatic policy and practice background of the Irish addictions scene. This article sets out the background to the programme, as well as its teaching philosophy and its attempts to deal with the issue of transfer of learning.