05.12.2017
NUI Seminar on International Student Mobility and
launch of 2018 NUI Awards
Tuesday 5 December 2017 at 2.00 pm
College of Anaesthetists of Ireland, 22 Merrion Square.
Press Call at 1.30 pm
The National University of Ireland held a Seminar on 5 December 2017 in the College of Anaesthetists of Ireland to showcase the research of former NUI Dr Garret FitzGerald Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dr Aline Courtois entitled “The Significance of International Student Mobility in Students’ Strategies at Third Level in Ireland”. The event also included the first official NUI Awards Launch showcasing the range of NUI Awards to be offered in 2018. The event was attended by NUI staff representatives and researchers of international education and language studies, representatives from the Higher Education Authority and the Irish Universities Association and past NUI Awards recipients.
Dr Courtois's research paper can be found here.
Dr Aline Courtois, 2014 recipient of the NUI Dr Garret FitzGerald Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Social Sciences presented a report based on a two-year study on international student mobility at third level in Ireland. While other studies have focused on the experience of international students coming to Ireland to study, this is the first major study to focus on the experiences of Irish students going abroad to study in a context where Irish higher education institutions are encouraged to increase outgoing numbers. The study found that outgoing student 
mobility brings a number of benefits at individual, institutional, national and regional levels and the majority of students reported having a positive experience. Some additional findings of Dr Courtois’s research included how students find differences between the international programmes and destinations offered by Irish higher education institutions in terms of quality and institutional support and the cost barrier presented to them by an additional year abroad as part of a degree.
NUI Chancellor Dr Maurice Manning made reference to yesterday’s launch of the new Foreign Languages Strategy by Minister for Education and Skills, Richard Bruton, T.D. of which one of the goals is to increase the number of participants in the Erasmus+ programme by 50%. Dr Manning said that Dr Courtois’s research would provide valuable insights in pursuing such goals and that today’s launch of the publication is both timely and beneficial to those working in the fields of international education and languages and indeed in international student offices. Professor Patrick Clancy, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at University College Dublin gave a response to Dr Courtois’s presentation commenting that, “The objective of making available the study abroad option to an even greater number of students in a climate of severely restricted funding is a real policy dilemma. What this study demonstrates is that there is a real danger of achieving an unsatisfactory trade-off between quantity and quality”. A publication based on Dr Courtois’s research was launched at the event and is available to download at www.nui.ie.
Following this, NUI Chancellor, Dr Maurice Manning launched the 2018 NUI Awards Scheme. Each year the National University of Ireland grants awards and scholarships to the value of up to €1 million to its students, graduates and institutions. The launch showcased a range of undergraduate and graduate level scholarships and awards to be offered to students and graduates of NUI member institutions in 2018. Dr Manning highlighted of some of the 2018 Awards including the NUI Post-Doctoral Fellowship which will be offered in the Humanities this year and the NUI E J Phelan Fellowship for an NUI graduate undertaking a PhD in International Law. Three recent NUI Awards recipients also spoke at the launch, giving attendees a taster of their experiences as NUI Award recipients and their respective areas of research to date. Dr Aoife Byrne, a graduate of University College Dublin gave a presentation on her experience as a Travelling Studentship recipient in English Literature at the University of Cambridge. Dr Gene Carolan spoke of his E J Phelan Fellowship in International Law at Maynooth University and Robert C. Prior, a graduate of Maynooth University and NUI Galway discussed his own Travelling Studentship in the Sciences which he undertook at KU Leuven in Belgium.
by contacting the NUI Awards team at awards@nui.ie
Further information from:
Dr Attracta Halpin
Registrar, National University of Ireland
49 Merrion Square, Dublin 2.
E-mail registrar@nui.ie
T: 353 (0)1 4392424
Twitter: @NUIMerrionSq
Facebook: National University of Ireland
#NUIAwards18
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