Nordie Students

[Milltown Row2]

A daughter of mine did 3 years 3rd level in Slovenia a few years ago, the course fees were ridiculously low as a citizen of an eu state. We paid her rent of a roomy single student flat about eur200/month then, and she could manage most of the rest of the living expenses with good summer work at home, savings, birthday gifts and lastly occasional top ups from us. We saved a fortune and she had an adventure of a lifetime.
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That sounds just the ticket..

I wish my kids could have looked at that option lol

[snoopdog]

Accommodation costs surely a huge part of it as well.

I get Coleraine is cheaper than Cork, but that doesn't explain why some students go to London or Edinburgh instead.

Its probably easier to get home from London Manchester etc than Galway or limerick or cork.

[DuffleKing]

A-levels now transfer into CAO points very unfavourably - also a factor i'm sure.

[naka]

Didn't read the article but a friend of mine his daughter wanted to go to Trinity or UCD not sure which one, but he said that she could only get in if there was any spaces available after the locals took theirs..

Purely anecdotal, just in case   

Not true
Son went to trinity so can speak from experience
Daughter applied for ucd  and was also accepted but ended up at queens as mates didn't go to Dublin
Reality for the good degrees  in ucd/ trinity you need 4  a levels but tbf you need a serious high number of points in the south also .

[Tony Baloney]

A-levels now transfer into CAO points very unfavourably - also a factor i'm sure.

Some woman was saying in one of the articles that 3 A* A-Levels provided insufficient points for a lot of the degree courses in the South so it's not apples with apples. Partitionism is thriving!

[gallsman]

A-levels now transfer into CAO points very unfavourably - also a factor i'm sure.

Some woman was saying in one of the articles that 3 A* A-Levels provided insufficient points for a lot of the degree courses in the South so it's not apples with apples. Partitionism is thriving!

It hasn't been for 20 odd years. Before that you used to get a bonus for getting straight As and three A levels would be have been the norm, as 150 points per A plus the bonus would bring you to the maximum 600 points.

[Baile Brigín 2]

A-levels now transfer into CAO points very unfavourably - also a factor i'm sure.

Some woman was saying in one of the articles that 3 A* A-Levels provided insufficient points for a lot of the degree courses in the South so it's not apples with apples. Partitionism is thriving!

It's literally apples with apples. To get into a course via the Leaving/CAO you need to matriculate. Everyone has to have numeracy and literacy in terms of LC maths and English. No wiggle room. You want to do a language, you need an honours LC in that language. Engineering honours maths. Science 2 honours sciences and so on.

If you did A level history, art and accounting, you are at a huge disadvantage if you want a degree from Dublin in Spanish or Biology. In fact possibly taking up a place in, say, medicine you probably can't pass.

It isn't partitionist to think the A level system is too deep and narrow, wheras the Leaving forces you to study things you aren't necessarily natural in.

[gallsman]

I'm not arguing that one is better than the other, but that works both ways. It could be easily argued that the Leaving Cert doesn't prepare its students well enough in more specialist degrees.

I did Mechanical Engineering in Trinity, having done Ad. Maths at GCSE and Maths at A-Level. Some of my fellow students in first and second year were massively underprepared for what were assumed to be relatively simple mathematical and physical concepts for engineers to be. Even those who ad studied Applied Maths for the Leaving were massively behind anyone who had done Maths for A Level in the north where they'd have most likely done two modules on mechanics.

I covered some really, really basic things in my GCSE Business Studies class that I came across again in a third year Engineering Management module, as well as a Business Management Masters.

[armaghniac]

I'm not arguing that one is better than the other, but that works both ways. It could be easily argued that the Leaving Cert doesn't prepare its students well enough in more specialist degrees.

Specialist degrees should provide specialist material, this degree of specialisation should not be happening at schools.

[gallsman]

Why not? At 15 I knew loads of things I didn't want to study any further.

[armaghniac]

Why not? At 15 I knew loads of things I didn't want to study any further.

Perhaps your judgement at 15 is not the best.

[marty34]

Didn't read the article but a friend of mine his daughter wanted to go to Trinity or UCD not sure which one, but he said that she could only get in if there was any spaces available after the locals took theirs..

Purely anecdotal, just in case   

Not true
Son went to trinity so can speak from experience
Daughter applied for ucd  and was also accepted but ended up at queens as mates didn't go to Dublin
Reality for the good degrees  in ucd/ trinity you need 4  a levels but tbf you need a serious high number of points in the south also .

Should nationalist politicians be looking at stuff like that and making it more accessible to students from the six counties to study at southern universities?  That's a simple, practical step they could try to do.


And on that, I know a lad who's son was trying to get registered as a teacher in the south. He wanted to live in Dublin.  Qualified in St. Mary's, Belfast but the hassle and grief he was put through to get registered with the Teaching Council was unreal. He said it'd be easier to get registered if you were from Australia.


He said the grilling and paperwork he had to put in was crazy. Ironic thing is, he said, is that there's a severe shortage of teachers in the south, especially in Dublin and commuter belt areas on the eastern seaboard.

Again, this is an area tht nationalist politicans should be working on - making it more accessible to northerners.

[armaghniac]

Didn't read the article but a friend of mine his daughter wanted to go to Trinity or UCD not sure which one, but he said that she could only get in if there was any spaces available after the locals took theirs..

Purely anecdotal, just in case   

Not true
Son went to trinity so can speak from experience
Daughter applied for ucd  and was also accepted but ended up at queens as mates didn't go to Dublin
Reality for the good degrees  in ucd/ trinity you need 4  a levels but tbf you need a serious high number of points in the south also .

Should nationalist politicians be looking at stuff like that and making it more accessible to students from the six counties to study at southern universities?  That's a simple, practical step they could try to do.


And on that, I know a lad who's son was trying to get registered as a teacher in the south. He wanted to live in Dublin.  Qualified in St. Mary's, Belfast but the hassle and grief he was put through to get registered with the Teaching Council was unreal. He said it'd be easier to get registered if you were from Australia.


He said the grilling and paperwork he had to put in was crazy. Ironic thing is, he said, is that there's a severe shortage of teachers in the south, especially in Dublin and commuter belt areas on the eastern seaboard.

Again, this is an area tht nationalist politicans should be working on - making it more accessible to northerners.

College entry is not a real problem, teaching recognition is. Yet, these politicians rarely do anything as useful as this.

[Harold Disgracey]

My son graduated from UL last year after a 5 year MEng degree, from memory I don't think he got much help fro his school during the application process. I seem to recall there being a points bonus for having A-Level maths which helped meet the CAO requirements for Aeronautical Engineering.

My daughter will be graduating in July with a MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Edinburgh, somehow she was classed as an EU national and was charged as a home student for tuition fees saving about £7k a year. Apparently we couldn't prove she was 'British' 😂