Trinity Hosts Outreach Event for Northern Irish School Staff

Posted on: 04 May 2016

Trinity hosted its first outreach event for Northern Irish headmasters, principals and careers teachers in Lisburn on April 21st.

This initiative was part of Trinity’s Northern Ireland Engagement Programme which has included activities such as talks and presentations in schools, and attendance at school, regional and major careers fairs like UCAS over the past 3three years.

The results of these outreach activities, coupled with changes in the admission scoring system for A-level applicants, can been seen in the rise of almost 20% of applications to Trinity from Northern Ireland this year.  In fact there has been  increase of just under 25% in the number of Northern Ireland students applying for university places in the Republic of Ireland in 2016.

The recent networking and information event was attended by 21 schools from across Northern Ireland. It involved a range of panel discussions introduced by the Senior Lecturer / Dean of Undergraduate Admissions, Dr Gillian Martin and Student Recruitment Officer, Dr Seán O’Reilly at which Trinity academic staff, students and alumni, all of whom are from Northern Ireland, presented.

Commenting on the event’s success, Student Recruitment Officer,  Dr Seán O’Reilly said: “This event shows our continuing commitment to attract students from Northern Ireland, and to connect with teachers there to ensure they have all the information they need to advise on applying to Trinity. It benefits everybody in the University when we have a more culturally diverse student body from all traditions and backgrounds. Trinity is truly a university for the whole island of Ireland”.  

Press coverage:

Dr Seán O’Reilly speaking on BBC’s Good Morning Ulster programme (at 1.48) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b077j443

BBC news report on increase in Northern Irish applicants applying to universities in the Republic: http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-northern-ireland-36092678