It's often overlooked by undergraduates, but the fact is that Irish universities have an overwhelming number of scholarships and prizes on offer to top students.
Annual awards of more than half a million pounds have been recently announced by the NUI. These awards are available to students, staff and graduates of the universities and recognised colleges of the NUI. The value of many NUI scholarships have been increased and a number of new awards have been established. A major innovation is the award of four post-doctoral fellowships worth £40,000 each over two years in the humanities, the sciences, Irish/ Celtic studies and international studies. This is the first time that the NUI has awarded scholarships at this level, according to NUI's registrar, Dr John Nolan. These fellowships aim to encourage and support post-doctorate scholars to continue their research. The Dr Mary L Thornton NUI Scholarship in Education, worth £3,500, is open to NUI graduates and is intended to encourage postgraduate research in higher education.
At undergrad level, the Dr HH Stewart Literary Scholarships offer three scholarships, worth £2,000, £1,000 and £500, in Irish, English, French, German, Spanish and Italian. All first-year students are automatically entered for these awards, which are made to the top three students in each subject across the four universities.
"This is a great improvement on the situation in the past, when students had to sit special exams," Nolan notes. Similar scholarships are available in the faculties of medicine in the four constituent universities and in the RCSI. Up to 15 awards of £500 each are available under the O'Brien bequest to new entrant students with serious disabilities. The bequest also provides four £1,250 awards - one in each constituent university - to economically disadvantaged students. Although the Thomas Crawford Hayes Fund has been in existence since 1922, this year, more money have been released to allow an annual £165,000 for the purchase of scientific equipment.
The NUI awards apart, Irish universities have a host of other awards on offer. UCD, for example, boasts an array of scholarships worth £500 each at undergraduate level throughout the faculties. There are scholarships, too, for students transferring from institutes of technology and for students from Northern Ireland. On top of these, there are prizes, awards and medals established by companies, professional bodies and organisations and to honour former faculty, college graduates or their relatives.
This year's sports scholarship award scheme at DCU includes seven hurling and men's and women's Gaelic football scholarships. A number of cash prizes, too, are made to students in accounting and finance. DCU's Oscail Access Project provides entry to the diploma/degree programmes in humanities and information technology for up to 25 economically disadvantaged mature students. The college also offers a number of scholarships to students from north Dublin.
At UCC, there are 15 entrance scholarships worth £500 each available to students in any faculty of the college, based on their Leaving Cert results. UCC's sports bursaries are now worth £1,500 per annum and are available for up to four years. Recipients must maintain a satisfactory academic standard and play on university teams.
Some college awards provide historical vignettes. Take UCC's O'Longan Memorial Prizes, which were established in 1918 by admirers of the 18th-century Cork poet Micheal O Longain. In 1919 a fund of £140 was raised by public subscription and handed over to the college's governing body to be invested in Irish securities. The interest was to be spent on "bookprizes for the encouragement of literary work in the Irish language". Today the prizes are worth £500 annually.
Some scholarships have international links. UCC's Ainsworth Scholarship was established by Miss Edith K Eyre of Newport, Rhode Island, in memory of her grandfather, Dr James Ainsworth, who had qualified in medicine in Dublin and practised in Peru. The deed requests that the scholarship be available to young male medical doctors who intend to practise in Ireland, to enable them to study abroad. NUI Galway's awards include 15 £1,000 entrance scholarships, 20 Bord na Gaeilge scholarships, each worth £1,260, and the £900 Dr John F Keenan Scholarship, for students from Co Mayo.
Many of UL's awards are sponsored by the corporate sector: the Kellogg's Sports Scholarships, for example, are worth between £1,000 and £2,500 annually; Motorola Ireland's £1,000 scholarships to fourth-year electronics, engineering and computer engineering students. As you might imagine, TCD, Ireland's oldest university, has a range of ancient scholarships. Foundation scholars, who receive free rooms and Commons (dinners) and a small salary, are elected annually in various subjects on the result of an exam held in the Trinity term. Ten scholars or students are appointed annually "to say grace before and after meat in the Dining Hall". They are called waiters and receive a quarterly salary. "Grace is repeated memoriter and in Latin, in a form prescribed by the Statutes of the College." Included in NUI, Maynooth's extensive award and scholarship scheme are scholarships each worth £1,500 for students with disabilities and students from the Maynooth area. Maynooth's Junior Organ Scholarship is worth £1,200 and requires the recipient to take on duties in the college chapel.
If you're interested in teaching as a career, don't forget that the deadline for receipt of applications for the HDip in NUI universities is December 1st, for the 1999 entry. Applications to NUI universities - UCD, UCC, NUI Maynooth and NUI Galway - are now being made through a centralised system. Contact the Higher Diploma in Education (NUI) Applications Centre, PO Box 184, Galway.
