Almost 2,500 students graduated from DCU last week with the ceremonies being held in the Helix.
14% of undergraduates were awarded a first-class honours degree with 15% of postgraduates leaving with a top level degree.
Over 750 undergraduates were awarded second-class honours grade one degrees accounting for 49% of the entire college’s undergraduates.
No undergraduate received a second-class honours degree grade two, while only 75 graduates took home third-class honours degrees.
1,526 undergraduates were awarded their degrees in the areas of business, science, engineering and the humanities, 919 postgraduate degrees were also awarded.
The College View spoke to some graduates to see what their plans are for life after university.
Amy Ní Lucaís is a former Access Officer in the Students’ Union and graduated from Communication Studies last week. At the moment she has no full-time job but is working part time with the Access Office and has a few interviews lined up.
“I really want to work in education or the community. I am the first to graduate in my family so I want to work encouraging people from different areas and backgrounds to go further with their education.”
Conor Donohoe graduated with a degree in journalism and is working at the moment with Irish Life Assurance, “I came out of my INTRA at the end of September, which didn’t have a full-time place for me, and came straight into a full-time job with Irish Life Assurance, who I worked for during the summers throughout college …the job isn’t media-related or related to my degree.”
Sarah Kavanagh graduated with a 2.1 in business studies and has no job in the business area, “I don’t have a job lined up at the moment, there are not a lot of jobs out there and any jobs that are there, require experience.”
At the moment she is working full-time and is hoping to return to education again next year.
“I am one of the lucky ones who still has the job I had throughout my college years and am now working full-time, it’s not related to my degree but it’s still a job at the end of the day.”
Sarah Doran graduated with a Masters in journalism last week and is optimistic about the possibilities of getting work in the industry related to her degree. “I’m working part-time in retail and interning at Entertainment. ie. I’ve had a lot of placement offers as a result of the MA and so I’m sure something will come of at least one of them.”
Conor McNally graduated with a degree in journalism and is one of the lucky ones who has landed a job in the industry he wants to work in.
“Thankfully I secured a job before I finished my INTRA placement. I absolutely love the job and it’s in the area I wanted to work in, television news. I might go back to education at some point in the future but right now I’m a little busy.”
Of all the graduates The College View spoke to, not one of them wanted to leave Ireland in search of work.
Graduations meant thousands of families flocked to DCU’s campus.
Gillian Barry is the Head of Students Awards Management at DCU and organised the graduation last week.
Speaking to The College View she said the feedback on the ceremonies was excellent. “It went very well. We got excellent feedback from our graduates and guests and were very happy with how it went.”
Adam Higgins
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