Dr Murphy hoped that this novel scheme would be broadly welcomed by all relevant stakeholders including students, teachers and the new government. These new scholarships would be used to reward excellent performance by students in this year’s Leaving Certificate examinations entering all four colleges within the University. He continued, “The calibre of our graduates has been internationally acknowledged and indeed endorsed by the multinational corporations who continue to invest here. Global challenges will continue to proliferate and thus require even more talented graduates in the future. Therefore, in these straitened times, we believe it is imperative to encourage and actively reward excellence in the Leaving Certificate examinations.” In an innovative step UCC have decided to focus the additional new funding on identified national and strategic skills needs.
A series of recent Forfás publications under the auspices of The Expert Group on Future Skills Needs, identified future skills shortages in the Irish Labour Market and highlighted the requirement for foreign language skills. In response UCC’s College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, will offer scholarships to a number of students with the highest overall Leaving Certificate points who register for two or more foreign language subjects for the duration of their Bachelor of Arts degrees. Payments would be made to students in each year of their degree programme while they continue to take two or more foreign language subjects. Foreign language subjects covered under the Scholarship are French, German, Italian, Hispanic Studies and Chinese Studies (Mandarin).
In a similar mode the College of Business and Law is supporting the internationalisation of business and legal education. The Expert Group on Future Skills reports suggest this could provide a foundation for national competitive advantage. An International Education Scholarship Fund will be created by the College to support high achieving students in all degrees, particularly those who choose to study for a B.Comm or BCL with any language or a BCL (International).
The College of Science, Engineering and Food Science will offer a series of new scholarship focussed on the key areas of the Green economy, Information Communications Technologies (ICT) and Food and Beverage Sciences all of which were also highlighted in the reports.
All of these new scholarships will be targeted at the top students, ranked highest on the basis of Leaving Certificate points, who are not in receipt of any other UCC entrance Scholarship.
Dr Murphy ended by stating “The tradition of excellence in teaching and learning on which this university was founded continues unabated and it is our hope that these new scholarships will only help add to that prestige in the future.” He concluded by noting that UCC has always sought a balance between measures of academic success and excellence in extracurricular activities. Indicative this year were UCC’s wins in the ladies intervarsity basketball and freshers' camogie championships and the men lifting both the centenary Sigerson Cup in football and the Collingwood in soccer.
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