Meghan Prenderville, Jayne Lawlor and Chloe Wills, 6th years at St Ailbes Tipperary Town, at the University of Limerick Open Days on Friday Picture: Arthur Ellis.
Sunday, 20 October 2019

The next generation of students have visited University of Limerick in their thousands as Open Days take place.

Over 14,000 second level students, their teachers and guidance counsellors flocked to the UL campus this Thursday and Friday, arriving from all around Ireland and further afield.

The largest ever number of individuals, outside of the school groups and most of which are parents, guardians or carers of potential students, attended – over 2,000 in total, with visitors from Northern Ireland, the UK, France, Germany and as far afield as Philadelphia, USA.

Open Days at UL, which was voted Best Student Campus and Sunday Times University of the Year for 2019, are planned with the future student in mind and offers the best chance to see the University in action and get a real feel for the campus.

UL President Dr Des Fitzgerald said: “Our Open Days show the next generation of undergraduate what studying at UL can offer. Studying at University of Limerick will offer students the chance to become one of the most employable graduates in the country as well as allowing them the chance to develop personally during their time here.

“Teaching and learning are at the core of University of Limerick and the student experience is at its heart as the roadmap to graduation is followed.

“The educational road ahead for second level students comes with many choices and before them now is a horizon with endless possibilities and visiting the UL campus during Open Days offers them the information needed to make an informed decision on their future studies,” he added.

Taking place over the two days were presentations on all undergraduate courses at UL, interactive displays from faculties, information stands and tours of the newly extended Glucksman Library – one of the largest campus libraries in Ireland and one of the most digitally advanced in the world.

There were also talks on Cooperative Education work placement, which is part of every programme at UL and the sports scholarships on offer to elite athletes on the state-of-the-art sports campus.

UL’s sporting facilities were recently enhanced with the launch of the new 22-acre €7m sports facility at Maguires Pitches that reaffirms its status as Ireland’s sporting campus and one of the best in Europe.

There was also information on fees and grants, scholarships, Access routes and entry requirements, regular tours of the award-winning campus and student village accommodation and students on hand from some of UL’s 70 clubs and societies to talk about their experience in UL.

A new feature this year was a platform to provide even more information for parents, guardians and carers of second level students. On Friday, an information seminar took place to provide the information parents need from experts in areas like student accommodation, finance, wellbeing and support and careers with a UL honours degree.

For more, see www.studyatul.ie.