December 2005 University Gala Banquet to celebrate ground-breaking International Scholarship P

Details have been announced of NUI Galway's seventh annual Gala Banquet, which will take place at the Radisson SAS Hotel on Saturday 4th March 2006.

The 2006 Gala Banquet will build on the University's mission in international education which has brought three postgraduate students from developing countries to NUI Galway as the inaugural recipients of its International Scholarship Programme.

The NUI programme is a philanthropic initiative spearheaded by Galway University Foundation, which has been working with a range of donors to secure substantial scholarship funds for postgraduate students from developing countries to study in NUI Galway. Income from the Gala Banquet itself will also contribute to this initiative.

The students; a lawyer from South Africa, and a doctor and an engineer from Sri Lanka, will be special guests at the Gala which will focus on NUI Galway's role as an international force for change in improving educational opportunities for students from developing countries.

One of the highlights of the evening, which has established itself as a premier national event and one of the key social occasions in the West of Ireland, is the presentation of seven annual Alumni Awards. These awards celebrate the life-long value of an NUI Galway education and recognise individual excellence and achievements among the University's more than 50,000 graduates worldwide.

The Alumni Awards are; Medtronic Vascular Award for Health Care and Medical Science; Seavite Award for Natural Science; Bank of Ireland Award for Business and Commerce; AIB Award for Literature, Communications and the Arts; TBD Award for Engineering, IT and Mathematics; Duais Hewlett-Packard don Ghaeilge and the NUI Galway Award for Law, Public Service and Government.

Tickets for the banquet cost €150 each and €1,500 for a table of 10. For further information, please telephone 091 495266 or Email: gala@nuigalway.ie