From Dublin to Dundee, via Vienna

After hearing about the University of Dundee Discovering Degrees for Schools programme at a conference in Vienna, Bronagh Duffy and Karen Hildebrand, who are both Project Officers with the Dublin City University Access Service spent a day in Dundee to see the course in action and meet pupils and teachers from three local schools. They also met former access students who are now deep into their degrees and the Academic Secretary.

Commenting on what they saw, Bronagh and Karen reported that they were very impressed by the "effective, interactive programme".

"There appeared to be excellent communication and involvement of University staff in the programme. Discovering Degrees offers practical and accessible workshops and engages the young people in University life. There was a strong presence of Access Staff on campus and a good balance between workshops, lectures and social activity. It was enlightening and reassuring visit for us as we could identify strong links between our primary and Senior Cycle programmes and the Discovering Degrees programme," they said.

So far in 2006, Discovering Degrees for Schools has allowed nearly 500 Second Year Pupils (aged 12 and 13) from local secondary schools to gain an insight into what being an undergraduate involves. All of these pupils have been identified by their schools as having undergraduate potential but being likely to be deterred from entering further study by their circumstances. The timing of Discovering Degrees aims to helps pupils, teachers and parents better understand future options and so inform critical Standard Grade subject choices in school as the first step to being our graduates of the future.