by Kathy Masterson
kathy@limerickpost.ie
AS THE University of Limerick commences three days of conferring ceremonies that will see 1,831 students graduating, UL president, Professor Don Barry said the university’s 70 per cent graduate employment rate gives it “the UL Edge”.
Speaking at the first of six conferring ceremonies, Prof Barry said: “As one benchmark of UL’s distinctiveness, our 70 per cent graduate employment rate for 2013 primary degree-holders which is a massive 19 per cent higher than the average for the seven universities in Ireland.
“That is part of what we call the UL Edge – and it is something of which this university is very proud. Our most recent graduate survey revealed that more than seven out of ten of our graduates are going into direct employment. And most of the rest go on to further study and research.”
This week will see the conferring ceremony of the first cohort of teachers to finish the Professional Diploma in Mathematics through the National Centre for Excellence in Maths and Science Teaching and Learning (NCE-MSTL) at UL. This special Conferring Ceremony, which is individual to this programme will take place on Saturday January 24.
There are a number of other firsts among the graduates this week, the first cohort of international students to complete the MSc Nursing Studies will be conferred with their degrees, as well as the first class to graduate from the Master of Arts in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages.
In total, 1831 graduates will receive awards from UL in a range of disciplines including: Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, Education and Health Sciences, Engineering and Science.
Some 183 international students are among this week’s graduates hailing from 20 countries worldwide.
In addition, 74 PhDs will also be awarded as part of UL’s commitment to fourth level education in Ireland.
Meanwhile, the university announced that there would be an “unavoidable delay in releasing grades”, which are now due to be released to students online on February 5.
Following ratification of results by the University’s Academic Council Grading Committee, final results and progression decisions will be published online on February 12.
UL has insisted that “no student will be disadvantaged or impeded in relation to their current studies or progression activities” as a result of the delay.
According to a UL spokesperson: “The university is currently engaged in a review of its student information systems to ensure that existing systems are compatible with Irish and international best practice. An internal review is being complemented by external experts who have been commissioned to assess UL’s practices and to identify any issues that may arise and propose recommendations for future actions.”
“As the current review has not been completed it was decided to add an additional series of checks for student grades before they were released. These checks required a change in the grade release schedule.”
