Over two thousand students attended the ‘Postgrad Ireland: Further Study Fair’ in the RDS, Dublin, last Wednesday.
The postgrad fair offered students a variety of information and resources on further education opportunities.
There were over 80 higher education institutes represented on the day, from Ireland, Northern Ireland and the UK. The institutes ranged from Ireland’s leading universities to smaller colleges.
The flagship exhibitors comprised of Queen’s University, University of Ulster, NUI Maynooth, Cardiff Business School and Northumbria University.
As well as the top shelf education providers, smaller lesser known institutes were also making their mark on the day, with the Dublin based ‘Digital Marketing Institute’ proving to be quite popular. A staff member encouraged a visitor to the stand ‘to create their own jobs, own opportunities through digital media’.
Grad Ireland, the organisers of the event, also offered a computer station, for visitors to carry out research, as well as a CV clinic. The CV clinic offered students advice on how to best write their CV and promote their skills.
A total of seven different seminars also took place throughout the day, on a wide range of topics, including ‘Studying Abroad’ and ‘Postgraduate studies: what’s right for me?’
DCU was well represented on the day, with two stands; DCU and the DCU Business School.
The current economic climate drew a huge amount of visitors who found themselves unemployed and wanting to renter the education system. However, many undergraduate students also felt that the courses on offer ‘were too expensive’ and ‘unrealistic’.
Karen Hewitt, a final year Communications student found the fair ‘relatively informative’. She continued that if she had a more solid future plan she felt the fair would have been super beneficial; ‘perhaps if I had more insight as to what I want to do in the future it would have been of more benefit to me’.
Emma Jane Hade
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