A first-year student at NUI Galway was feted Monday for being the 150th student to enroll in the university's 150th year. Ruth McNamara from Maynooth, Co Kildare, was registering for the four-year biomedical engineering programme when she was told she held the magic number in the queue.

NUI Galway Vice-President for Development and External Affairs Dr Ruth Curtis presented McNamara with a bouquet of flowers and a cheque for £150. A champagne toast to the past, present and future of the university was made. "I am delighted to mark this very important event in the long and distinguished history of the university," said Curtis. "Marking 150 years of student enrolment at NUI Galway, through events like this and the Millennium Lecture series, has provided an opportunity to celebrate this milestone in our history in a very memorable way."

NUI, Galway, then called Queen's College Galway, enrolled its first students in 1849. The student body, the faculties and Galway city itself were all much smaller 150 years ago.

At Queen's College there were only 68 students (all male and all Irish) and three faculties when the university was founded. Currently, 11,000 students from more than 40 countries study in seven faculties. In the beginning, the university's campus comprised 14 acres, which have been expanded to 260 acres today.

Galway city has also undergone rapid change and growth in the intervening 150 years. When the university was being built, during the Famine, Galway was often described as "one of the poorest towns in the world"; now it is better known as "the fastest growing city in Europe", with a population of 57,000 and a thriving economy.

The first female students were admitted to the university in 1888. Another female engineer, Alice Perry, made a bit of history at Queen's College when she became the first female engineering graduate in Britain or Ireland, receiving her degree in civil engineering in 1906.