Excerpts from talks with Mr. Eoin Taaffe, UCD International Senior Regional Manager, South Asia
What is your opinion about Indian students and alumni at University College of Dublin?
Number of Indian students at UCD has increased year by year. In 2017 intake, we had 725 Indian students and we are expecting 800 plus students for 2018 intake. Most of them apply for undergraduate, postgraduate, and PhD programmes. Hence, our main focus areas are business, engineering, and computer science. The demand for technical programmes in graduate programme is highest. To enhance employability among students, we have increased number of credits in such programmes so that students are also able to engage well. We do as much as possible to facilitate this engagement. This includes conducting soft skills programmes, psychometric testing, and helping students from different cultural backgrounds in building their resume.
Any scholarships offered at University College of Dublin in graduate or undergraduate programme.
We offer even 100 percent scholarships to students. Some of the schools offer school specific scholarship. These all scholarships are highly competitive and based on academic merit. The application window for these scholarships is from November to early March. During this duration application is assessed and then scholarships are awarded to students.
Which opportunities are provided to students at UCD apart from studies?
There are huge number of societies related to sports and social community service. The key focus for students is always on performing well at academics. But, we also encourage them to step ahead out of their studies and look to engage themselves in society. There are almost 150 to 160 societies of cricket, football, drama, and art. There is almost something or the other for everyone. We also have active Indian societies in which numerous students are actively involved and they encourage memberships among other students. Various events are organized commemorating various Indian festivals like Diwali, Holi, and Republic Day in which we support students as much as possible. This makes students feel that they can celebrate their national days at UCD without any hesitation.
Which graduate and undergraduate programme are popular at UCD?
From graduate programme perspective, business is very popular. We have top business schools which offer courses such as business analytics and management consultancy. They are open to even short-notice applications because of significantly high demand of those applications. In Indian context engineering is very popular area particularly among students applying for post-graduate programmes. Besides, computer science is another popular programme. Opportunities for Indian students in every area of Ireland economy are very high.
Excerpts from talks with Leonie Phipps, Career & Skills Consultant, UCD Career Development Centre
What kind of support and career advice does UCD Career Development Centre provides to Indian students?
We spend more time with students and figure out what’s important for them. Then we take them through formation of a CV. We tell them what does a CV looks like, that they need to be mindful of our cultural differences, and what does an employer look for in them. We provide them as much as advice as we can and encourage them to do maximum research. We also provide them guidance in terms of body language, tone of voice and non-verbal communication.
Can you name some of the employers UCD is associated with?
We are associated with big employers like Microsoft, LinkedIn, Google etc. We also work with various financial services such as Deloitte, PWC, and Accenture. Therefore, we have employers from all different industries. They often visit university campus to offer graduate grooming programme and internship programmes.
How do your plan placements for students?
It depends on what course a student is pursuing. If a student is pursuing a master’s programme and has finished his or her first year, they have to begin applying for internships by the end of last year. They begin their internships in second semester of first year. It starts in January and finishes in August and then students go back to college in September. If it is computer science, then they do internships in second year or third year.
How does studying in foreign university such as UCD enhance inter-personal skills of a student?
Inter-personal skills of a student increase because of different nationalities engaging with each other. Hence, students learn from each other through their cultural differences. I think UCD is best place to study since it is global university. Various students from all over the world from the countries such as India, China, and United States study at our campus.