Choosing to go to University

Choosing to go to University

Enda Guinan: Hello and welcome to the first in a series of podcasts from the Access Office at National University of Ireland, Maynooth. I’m Enda Guinan, the Assistive Technology Advisor here on campus. In this podcast, Rose Ryan, the Disability Officer, gives some advice to people thinking about going to university. I asked Rose why someone might choose NUI Maynooth…

Rose Ryan: Why should somebody come to NUI Maynooth when they have a disability? I suppose what I would say to any student who has a disability or a medical condition or a specific learning difficulty is that they should go to whatever college they want to go to, they should do whatever course they want to do. They shouldn't let their disability or their medical condition hold them back. So when you're making a decision about what you want to do, decide first of all what's in your heart to do. What course you really want to do and just as a matter of good career advice you should check out the ins and outs of that career. What the options are? Where it can take you. What kind of money you can earn. What kind of hours you should work. Where that career can take you and put your disability second. Don't put it first, don't pick a career around making decisions based on well I have this disability so I can only do this, this and this. Decide first of all what you want to do. And don't decide to come to Maynooth just because it has an excellent Disability Office, come to Maynooth because it's the college that you want to come to. Because you've come out to see it before, because the location is right, because the course is right, the quality of teaching is right, and you can be assured that the quality of supports offered to students with disabilities is excellent and that you will be provided with as many supports as are necessary in order for you to show your academic ability and we try to take into account the fact that your disability or your medical condition or your learning difficulty that that can have had an adverse impact on your education performance in the past and what we try to do is to mitigate those effects to give you the opportunity to show your ability. That's the whole purpose of the Disability Office, so choose the course and then choose the college and then make sure that whatever supports that you need, that you get them from wherever the Disability Office is located.

EG: So, what’s different about going to NUI Maynooth? Rose told me about the location of the university, the residential orientation programme and a little about the Supplementary Application Procedure.

RR: Having seen other universities, I think one of the key advantages of Maynooth is its location. It's in a really central location, close to town but outside of town. And it can often be very important for students with disabilities to be in a smaller university, particularly because of the fact that the kind of difficulties that you might have can be mitigated by being in a smaller college. And you tend to know more people, you tend to build up more connections and I suppose a number of the things that are different about the Disability Office here is that they offer a kind of co-coordinated package. Really top of the range supports that can help you to put your disability to one side and you can just go about what every other student wants to do which is to enjoy college and do well academically. So, some of the key things that I think that are different about NUI Maynooth is first of all access to a one week residential program and I think that is absolutely critical. A lot of students would feel that their disability can isolate them, that it can make them separate to other students and that orientation program which does everything from an introduction to the subjects, good study skills, to learning how to cook. It helps you to build up those social kinds of connections which makes that entry to university much more seamless kind of a move from second level education to third level education and a good start is half the battle. That’s really critical, a lot of universities offer a supplementary admissions route for applicants with a disability and Maynooth will commence with that supplementary admissions route for the academic year 2007/2008 and that’s a very important route into this university for students who perhaps feel that their disability or their specific issues has prevented them from performing to their academic potential at second level. So it’s very important that students know that there is a supplementary admissions route which can help them to get a place on the course of their choice.

EG: In the next podcast, Rose will talk about some of the supports available to students with disabilities at NUI Maynooth. If you would like more information about any of the topics covered, you can find plenty of info at access.nuim.ie/disability. You can also find a full transcript of this and or other podcasts as they appear. Ok, until next time, take care.