Continuing my education..

C_Breeze

Hey

I'm 22 yrs old. I started college in 2003 when i was 17 in DCU.. I finished 2yrs and on my 3d yr (on my yr abroad in 2005/06) I dropped out for personal reasons. So I have my credits for the 2 yrs that i completed anyway.

I was recently thinking about my education and decided I would like to finish and get a degree (maybe not that exact same course). My plan as such is to go back as a mature student in 2009 (as a 23yr old) and continue on my education.

My main concern is that my credits will expire after a certain period of time and I will have to start again as a 1st yr student - is this correct? as i really dont want to have to do this.

Also, will I have to pay full fee's or is there a special mature student annual fee structure in place?

thanks for any comments/advice

Hi C_Breeze,

I don't know much about DCU's credits and how long they last for, but I know several people who went to start a degree and were allowed to start it in second year (of a four year degree) due to their obvious knowledge of the subject matter in first year. Your previous examination scores would come in handy in this situation, though might not be essential. There isn't really a set method of going this route, so it will simply be down to meeting up with the relevant department. If you're applying as a mature student, you've to do an interview anyways and it's always a good idea to emphasise how brilliant you are

As for fees, at the moment you must wait 5 years before returning to education in order to avail of free fees again, although you would have one or one and a half years left of 'free fees' if you were to start a new degree irrelevant of the above 5 year wait. So you would start college, pay for the first two years, and then your fees would kick in. The third year's fees will depend on when you dropped out, and if you did it officially (i.e. filled out a form). If you didn't, it would be a good idea to get on to DCU sometime soon to see what the situation is with it. Otherwise you might have a period of long headaches come 2009.

As for grants, the entire grant scheme is in flux at the moment and an announcement made by the Dept. of Education recently mentioned how the new grant system will be in place for 2009/2010, so that would be you covered. So at this moment I haven't read much of the Student Support Bill to know what will happen then, but either way you should contact your VEC sometime in the future to have a chat with them. The local authorities are still administrating the grant scheme for another year, but they will probably be phased out for 2009/2010.

In addition, it might be worth having a look at some of the websites linked in my signature as well as http://www.studentfinance.ie/. It has some information on grants/fees/scholarships. Finally, some of the programs in colleges do run a special programme which is funded which might give you some amount of fees - i.e. in Trinity, there's the Trinity Access Programme. Some of the links on the various programmes are in the links in my signature as I said.

If there's anything else, feel free to post it up! Congrats on your choice of going back to college by the way

Best wishes,

Dónal

C_Breeze

Hi

Thanks a lot for your reply, a lot of usefull information there

I think my next step is definitely to contact the registry and speak to them about my plans.

Hope all goes well

jakfrost

Not trying to hijack the thread, but can you elaborate on this 5 year wait you mention Myth?I'm hoping to commence a second undergraduate degree starting in 2008, which happens to be exactly five years after I finished my first one. Any further info is appreciated.

Sure... it has been mentioned when you're applying for a grant:

http://www.studentfinance.ie/pca7549.html

Note: If you previously attempted an approved Honours Degree course but did not successfully complete it and are now, following a break of at least five years, returning to pursue an approved course at the same level in 2008/9, you are still considered eligible to apply for a grant.

If you're eligible for a grant, your fees are paid for. But going the more direct route, I found the following information on ucc.ie. I don't think I've ever seen it on citizensinformation.ie or any other official governmental website so you're absolutely correct to question it. It's worth getting an official statement on it.

http://www.ucc.ie/en/financeoffice/fees/StateGrantFreeFeesInitiative/

Students returning after a break to a new course:

* Tuition fees will be paid in respect of students who, having attended but not completed approved courses, are returning following a break of five academic years in order to pursue approved courses at the same level in this academic year.

jakfrost

That's cleared it up for me. Both of those are only applicable for those who failed to complete their course first time around.It'll be the full whack for me I'm afraid.