Routes to college
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Access programmes reach out to students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds in a number of ways. These can include school visits, summer projects, workshops, tuition programmes, campus visits and student shadowing days.
Two schemes that are particularly useful for students from non-traditional college backgrounds are the Higher Education Access Route (HEAR) and one-year foundation courses.
Seven colleges are linked to HEAR and they set aside reserved places for students who qualify under preset criteria.
These colleges are DCU, DIT, NUI Maynooth, Trinity College, UCC, UCD and UL.
The numbers of students entering college through access schemes has increased. "Around 10 years ago, six or seven students from the schools we were working with were entering the college annually," says Cliona Hannon.
"Now there are around 115 students coming in every year."
For more information on these programmes, you should contact individual colleges and also visit www.hea.ie and www.studentfinance.ie.
- Lisa Jewell
