January NUI Galway Offers 170 Full-time Undergraduate Places for QQI/FET/FETAC Applicants

NUI Galway significantly increases the number of places for QQI/FET/FETAC applicants for the academic year 2018/2019

The Access Centre at NUI Galway will launch a number of new QQI/FET/FETAC places for the academic year 2018/2019 on Thursday, 25 January, offering 170 full-time undergraduate places available for QQI/FET/FETAC applicants, a significant 66% increase from the previous academic year.

The Access Centre continues to meet an important social demand to increase participation in third level education amongst disadvantaged and under-represented groups. As part of its Strategic Plan, ‘Vision 2020’, NUI Galway is committed to increasing the number of non-traditional students entering full-time undergraduate study to 24%.

In addition to the 170 full-time undergraduate places available for QQI/FET/FETAC applicants, there will also be additional places allocated on existing undergraduate programmes such as: an increase from 12 to 30 places on the undenominated Science programme (GY301); an increase of 20 to 30 places on the Bachelor of Arts (GY101) programme, as well as places on a number of new undergraduate programmes.

The Access Centre was established and designed to address the issue of equality of access to third level, to promote equity of access to lifelong learning opportunities and to respond to issues of rural (and to a lesser extent, urban) social exclusion across Ireland’s border, Midlands and Western region. The Centre aims to provide learning opportunities for those who could benefit from university education, which will enable them to fulfil their individual aspirations.

Imelda Byrne, Head of Access Programmes at NUI Galway, said: “The Access Centre contributes to the development of the wider community by providing a number of alternative pathways for disadvantaged or under-represented groups to progress to full-time undergraduate study. These include Access Programmes delivered in the region through innovative alliances with other educational institutes such as those formed through the West/ North-West Cluster, Mature student entry route, Higher Education Access Route (HEAR), Disability Access Route to Education (DARE), QQI/FET/FETAC Pathways and a range of measures with the primary and second level sector to assist in overcoming barriers.”

New QQI/FET/FETAC opportunities for the academic year 2018/2019 include pathways to the following degree programmes: BA Public and Social Policy; BA History; BA with English and Media Studies; BA Children’s Studies; BA with Film Studies; BA with Journalism; BA in Film and Digital Media; Business Information Systems; Corporate Law; Civil Law; Biomedical Science; Environmental Science; Financial Mathematics and Economics; BSc Marine Science; BSc Earth and Ocean Sciences; BSc Physics; BSc Biopharmaceutical Chemistry; BSc Mathematical Science; BSc Biotechnology; BSc Financial Mathematics and Economics and Gaeilge agus Léann an Aistriúcháin.

For the academic year 2017/2018, there were 60 full-time undergraduate places available for QQI/FET/FETAC applicants. In September 2017, there were over 150 full-time students registered at NUI Galway across all of its degree programmes who came through the QQI/FET/FETAC entry route.

The launch of this element of the 2018/2019 undergraduate Access Programmes will take place at 11am on Thursday, 25 January at Galway Technical Institute, Fr Griffin Road, Galway.

For further information regarding courses or for applications, email access@nuigalway.ie or visit http://www.nuigalway.ie/accesscentre/.

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