Irish Universities?

[Middersweekly]

Is anyone else’s DC planning on applying to an Irish university or has anyone been to an Irish university/college? We live in the EU not UK so technically an EU university would be better from a finance point of view. There seems to be some good universities in Dublin such has Trinity College. Would love to hear people’s experiences.

Well, my DD is going to apply to Trinity but the points are all very high for Irish students who have sat the leaving cert. Is it more expensive but easier to get in if you're not Irish? If you can afford it and you can get in, it's a good university. There is Maynooth which would be more like an American campus as there is more accommodation and it's a big town outside of Dublin. I can't afford digs as well as ''registration'' fees though. :-/ What course does your child want to do?

There is not really the same league table element to Irish universities. Students tend to go to their nearest one unless the course they want is not offered there. Trinity does have more of an international recognition though I’ve never found the lack of familiarity with my alma mater to be an issue when applying for jobs.

Bear in mind that many Irish students live at home or go home most weekends - so if your dc is on their own without family they may find the weekends very quiet. They could get a weekend job as a way of meeting more people & keeping busy.

Depending on your dc’s interests they should look at the unis outside Dublin too - especially if they want to immerse themselves in the Irish way of life.

@MuserOwl the fees are less for EU students and Irish students than for UK students but not by a huge amount. Accommodation will likely cost the same but the fees alone are a fraction of what DD could be looking at in the UK. They’ve upped the fee to 20k + a year for EU students at many universities, and are classing them the same as international students now, so that’s a pretty steep student debt to acquire. My DD wants to study Law and Trinity has a few good mentions for its course so DD is interested.
@Decorhate Thankyou for insight. I didn’t realize that most Irish students went home at the weekends. I wonder how many international And wider EU students it takes yearly? Perhaps they club them all together?

All three Dublin universities are very good (I studied at Trinity but drew on research from all three) and work at UCD. DCU has the best campus of all three, as in more facilities. TUD is a new university (merged from existing technical universities) and has developed a top class campus just north of the centre - really beautiful.

Maynooth is a beautiful, tiny town not far with a great uni.

It depends on the subject area, but it'd be hard to go wrong tbh. All very good universities, towns and cities are small here and easy to get around. If I were to do it all over again I would go for Galway!

Am originally from the UK. Students do tend to stay closer to home and live at home but still plenty of student social life.

Universities in Ireland are certainly worth considering as fees are in the region of £3000.

Also consider universities in The Netherlands. There are quite a few highly-ranked universities there where fees are less than £2000.

www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2021/world-ranking#!/page/0/length/25/locations/NL/sort_by/rank/sort_order/asc/cols/stats

For context, Bristol is ranked at 91. Amsterdam, Utrecht, Rotterdam, Delft, Wageningen and Groningen all rank higher than Bristol.

Before anyone here starts querying how major firms will view these universities, it is worth pointing out that many firms are moving offices from London to Amsterdam and Dublin due to Brexit and that graduate hire will be predominantly in these countries rather than in the UK.

I forgot to mention Leiden which is also highly-ranked.

Thankyou @Livingmagicallyagain that’s great to know! I will get DD to research the universities you’ve mentioned.

Thankyou also @HannahStern interestingly we have researched a few universities in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany for Engineering rather than Law. They all seem really good and as you say the fees are generally low.

You could also look at Scottish universities. Unless it has changed recently, EU students don’t pay tuition fees in the same way that Scottish students don’t.

@Decorhate

You could also look at Scottish universities. Unless it has changed recently, EU students don’t pay tuition fees in the same way that Scottish students don’t.

Once we are out of the Brexit transition period, Scottish universities won’t be able to levy different fees for EU and overseas students as that would be discriminatory against non-EU students.The fee will be an international one from 2021:

www.ed.ac.uk/tuition-fees/fee-status/work-out

Do universities in the netherlands and in denmark give the lectures in English?!

We looked at medicine after DD performed poorly on UCAT so was ruled out of quite a lot of English options. Entry is competitive but not so bad if you have 4 A levels and a language GCSE. Medicine, and presumably other courses, have a large overseas (EU and international) intake, so Irish students living at home will not be such an issue. A friend's son was in Galway (pre clinical in SE Asia, clinical in Ireland) and really enjoyed it. Indeed has stayed on for his F1 & F2. Some links have always been there because so much education in British colonies was delivered by Irish priests and nuns, so the logical next step was to study in Ireland.

Trinity has a long tradition of taking English students, often from private schools, and a good reputation. It still takes some as it it seen as having tradition and heritage.

@Decorhate DD has applied to Glasgow as they are currently deliberating their EU fees. She also wanted to apply to Edinburgh also but they have already put their fees up to 20k+ a year for EU & International students. She is British born so is entitled to a student loan but accommodation fees are not included in this which means bank of mum & dad will be footing this bill. It’s a nightmare tbh.

@MuserOwl yes some of the courses are taught in English and other courses taught in their native language in the above countries. This is namely because most students in those countries learn English from the very start of their education in primary so they are mostly all proficient English speakers.

@Needmoresleep Thankyou that is good to know. Is your DD a current student there? Is she enjoying it? DD is taking 4 A levels. Mainly because she had 2 potential career paths she was interested in which are completely different disciplines. She has French and Spanish GCSE’s so hopefully that will help her a little with her application.

What subject? Medicine is different and Irish places are attractive to a host of Europeans as well as Americans and Canadians and others from the middle east and Asia.

DD decided to have a stab at English universties first and to concentrate on getting strong A level grades, and then, if she had to, to reapply to the UK and, in parallel, to Ireland. Luckily she got an English place first time round.

If medicine happy to share what I learned from our research and from what my Asian friend told me.

@Needmoresleep Well done to your DD, I hope she’s happy and doing well! DD’s applied for Law in the UK and will likely also apply for Law in Ireland. She’ll apply for varying types Engineering elsewhere in Europe namely the Netherlands and Denmark.

@Livingmagicallyagain how are the university applications processed? Are students given conditional places based on potential grades like in the UK or do students who apply need to already have their qualifications in hand before applying? DD won’t have hers until results day next August as is the norm in the UK.

She's very brave being so open to going away @middersweekly . My dd is 17 and will be 18 when she gets her results and I just cannot imagine her being brave enough to move out. I hope that changes over the next year or two.

If looking at Dublin universities, bear in mind Dublin is eyewateringly expensive as a city.

@MuserOwl this is also a concern of mine as DD is very young. She doesn’t turn 18 until August next year. The UK is familiar territory and most of our extended family are still in the UK so I think if she could choose and money was no object she’d go to the UK.
Ireland however is very close by and I think she’d do just fine there. I really want her to meet her tribe at Uni and immerse herself in the experience. The alternative is a full time job and I know which option she’ll choose! 🤣 She’d have a flight to Denmark booked before I could say “hot potato”.

@SarahAndQuack yes I noticed the city rentals are quite pricey. The University accommodation isn’t too bad though when you weigh up the cost of the course V’s UK prices. It would very much depend on whether or not she got the student accommodation.

If you afford the student accomm go for it, until she gets the lie of the land. They dont have to worry about sleazy landlords, utiliti3s, getting locked out, usually close to the coll3ge as well

You can check on the admissions page on each uni but Irish students get their Leaving Cert (A-Level) results in August too, so not dissimilar.

Looks like accommodation is pretty tricky to find in the netherlands. Shame as the system looks good.

First year students would generally go home at the weekends in Ireland, second year and above more likely to stay. A lot of first years would be in digs where they are not welcome at weekends - older students often buddy up and rent a house together so don't have that issue. This is ime anyway.

I would say to go for student accommodation in the first year if you can. After that DD can buddy up with others and look for somewhere to live, if she likes.

OP you apply before exams are taken (Jan is the first cut-off I think) but places are allocated after results are received & it’s basically a first past the post system. No personal statements or interviews, just purely based on results. Points are allocated depending on the grade achieved. You can look up what the points were in previous years.

It can be quite brutal for very over subscribed courses like medicine. There is no leeway for having a bad day.