Semester/Year with University College Dublin (UCD)

FIE has partnered with the University College Dublin, an institution ranked among the top 1% of higher education institutions worldwide, to present a semester-long program combining direct enrollment at UCD with FIE’s unique Irish Life and Cultures course.

About UCD

UCD is one of Europe’s leading research-intensive universities where undergraduate education, postgraduate masters and PhD training, research, innovation and community engagement form a dynamic continuum of activity. The university was established in 1854 by John Henry Newman whose classic work The Idea of a University is one of the most enduring texts on the value of higher education and a source of inspiration for UCD’s current educational philosophy.

Today UCD is Ireland’s largest university with almost 25,000 students. Located just on the outskirts of Dublin and a quick bus ride from the city center, it actively promotes university life as a journey of academic and personal discovery. UCD is home to almost 5,000 international students and, in addition, places great emphasis on the internationalisation of the Irish student experience – preparing all UCD students for future employment and life that crosses borders, boundaries and cultures.

Eligibility

3.0 Minimum GPA
Freshmen – Senior standing

Academics

Irish Life and Cultures

All FIE students undertake an intensive Irish Life and Cultures Course, which begins prior to the Irish academic calendar and continues throughout the term. Students explore a variety of modules relation to Irish history, language, culture, and politics, with special emphasis on the history of peace and conflict in Ireland. Complementing the Dublin-based course lectures and co-curricular excursions, two study tours take students to Northern Ireland (Derry and Belfast) and Western Ireland (Galway, Connemara and the Aran Islands) to contextualize the topics at hand.

Additionally, a series of FIE-led required and optional Mobile Seminars throughout the semester address topics such as:

  • On the Fringes: Ireland’s Indigenous Traveler Communities
  • Ag labhairt as Gaeilge: Irish Language Preservation Efforts
  • A Hundred Years of the GAA: Sport in Irish Society
  • Taking the Boat: Irish Youth and Emigration
  • Irish Neutrality and the Armed Forces
  • Glencree Centre for Peace and Reconciliation: Conflict Mediation and Nonviolence
  • Socialized Medicine: Inefficient or the Way Forward?
  • The Irish-American Connection: Contemporary Relations between Friendly Neighbors

UCD Coursework

With particular strengths in American Studies, Irish Studies, the Sciences, Engineering, Architecture, Business and Archaeology, UCD offers students plentiful opportunities to undertake coursework within and outside their home-school majors, up to five electives. The full range of disciplines available include:

Agriculture, Food Science and Veterinary Medicine
Agricultural Science, Human Nutrition, Rural Development, Pre-Veterinary (Veterinary Nursing)

Arts & Celtic Studies
Art History and Cultural Policy; Celtic Civilization; English, Drama and Film; Greek Classics; History and Archives; Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore and Linguistics; Languages and Literatures; Music

Business & Law
Business Studies, Commerce, International Commerce, Business and Law, Economics and Finance, Pre-Law, Pre-Law with Economics, Pre-Law with History, Pre-Law with Philosophy, Pre-Law with Politics
UCD’s School of Business is AACSB accredited.

Engineering & Architecture (RIAI and RIBA accredited)
Architecture Biosystems Engineering; Chemical and Bioprocess Engineering, Civil, Structural and Environmental Engineering, Electrical, Electronic and Communications Engineering; Mechanical and Materials Engineering

Health Sciences
Biomedical Health and Life Science, Children’s and General Nursing, Health and Performance Science, Midwifery, Physiology, Pre-Medical (Undergraduate Entry Medicine), Psychiatric Nursing, Nursing, Sports and Exercise Management
Please note that in this school, Physiotherapy and Radiography are not available to study abroad students.

Human Sciences
Applied Social Science; Economics; Education; Geography, Planning and Environmental Policy; Information and Library Studies; Philosophy; Politics and International Relations; Psychology; Social Justice

Science
Archaeology with Geology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Botany, Cell and Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Climate and Earth Systems, Computer Science and Informatics, Environmental Biology, Genetics, Geology, Mathematical Sciences, Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology, Microbiology, Pharmacology, Physics, Physics with Astronomy and Space Science, Theoretical Physics, Zoology

Orientation, Student Services and Housing

Students will participate in comprehensive on-site orientations with both FIE and UCD to help acclimatize them with the program and their surroundings, as well as provide a basic underpinning for the cultural learning they will undergo during their term abroad.

FIE’s outstanding Resident Staff provide students with both individual support and a variety of group opportunities, from the Mobile Seminar Series to an extensive extra-curricular calendar that might include theater events, literary festivals, comedy shows, and sport matches.

Students on the FIE-UCD program will live in UCD’s purpose-built campus housing, with all of the university’s services at their doorsteps, including the UCD library, on-campus cafés and sporting facilities.