Academic Focus
This program gives students the opportunity to be fully immersed in the Irish higher education system and choose courses from NUIG's full course catalog. You may wish to continue taking courses in your major, or choose courses from those subject areas for which NUIG is the best known such as Marine Science, Irish Literature, Women's Studies, Archaeology, Classical Civilizations, and Information Technology. Either way, you will attend classes with Irish students taught by NUIG faculty.
One academic year of coursework at NUIG is generally worth 60 NUIG credits. As a semester student, you must take a schedule of classes totaling 30 NUIG credits. This total number of credits can be reached through multiple combinations of courses offered worth 5, 10 and 15 NUIG credits each. Courses with these NUIG credit values are typically worth 3, 6 and 9 credits respectively within the US semester system. Therefore, you will typically earn a total of 18 credits within the US system per semester session at NUIG. Remember, it is up to the discretion of your academic advisor how many credits will be awarded.
Schedule Summary
Contact hours for each course vary and may be comprised of lectures, seminars and tutorials. Due to the differences in the Irish higher education system, there is no standard for the number of days a week a course may meet. Class meeting times vary across departments and subject areas. Expect the number of times you meet with your class to be different than what you are used to at your home institution. Although the number of contact hours, in class assessment and homework assignments may be smaller and than you are used to, it would be a mistake to think that this means less work is required. In preparation for your classes, you are expected to read extensively, participate fully in discussions and develop your own ideas and arguments.
Registration
You will be required to submit your course selections and alternates to the CEA headquarter office prior to departure for Ireland. You will be pre-registered for classes but formal registration does not take place until you have your registration session during the first week of the program. In making your selection you are requested to indicate only the disciplines in which you wish to take courses, although students should also indicate any courses they are required to take while studying abroad and any requirements of their major(s) which they wish to fulfill. NUIG students are not required to select their courses before the commencement of the semester and therefore CEA students will be going through their course selection process at the same time as NUIG full degree students. With a small number of exceptions, e.g. seminar classes in some subjects in final year, class size is not limited so that students may expect to gain admission to classes they wish to take. Students are given two weeks before being required to specify their choice of courses and a further 'drop/add' week is then allowed. The experience has been that a combination of the information provided, the advisory sessions, and the opportunity to attend classes before course registration is finalized, provides every opportunity for students to make an informed course choice.
Students will choose a course schedule comprising of classes worth 30 NUIG credits per semester. Depending on the courses being taken, students can expect to take 5 - 7 courses. There are no required courses. To aid in the registration process, it is in your best interest to have courses, including alternates, approved by your academic advisor prior to departure.
For classes that have prerequisites, alternatives can often be given within the same department. While most classes are easily approved there is limited availability on courses in Psychology, final year Sociological and Political Studies, History and English seminar classes and second year Science classes.
Courses offered through the Science, Engineering and Nursing Faculties require an additional fee, for which you will be invoiced after you complete registration in Ireland.
