Farry and O’Dowd launch the All Ireland Scholarships

Employment and Learning Minister Dr Stephen Farry and Education Minister John O’Dowd have launched this year’s All Ireland Scholarships Scheme for students in Northern Ireland.

The annual scholarships, funded by businessman JP McManus, are now in their sixth year and provide financial assistance to high-performing students from disadvantaged backgrounds who intend to take up full-time undergraduate courses in the coming autumn.

The value of each scholarship is £5,500 per annum for the undergraduate degree course duration.

Dr Farry said, “I would like to thank JP McManus for his generosity in providing these scholarships, which ease the financial concerns of the students and the financial burden on their parents.

“These scholarships recognise individual academic achievement and will enable 25 students from post-primary schools and Further Education Colleges to have the opportunity to access a secure start to a career in higher education and beyond.

“My Department’s strategy, Access to Success, demonstrates my commitment to widening participation in higher education by students from those groups who are currently under-represented, in particular, students from challenging economic backgrounds.

“I am delighted to note that to date 36 students from Northern Ireland who successfully applied for a JP McManus scholarship have now graduated from Institutions such as Queen’s University Belfast, Ulster University, the University of Oxford and Trinity College Dublin with degrees in a range of subjects such as medicine, law, and chemical engineering,” he added.

Minister for Education John O’Dowd said, “One of my key priorities as Education Minister is to raise standards for all learners and, crucially, to close the performance gap between young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds and their more affluent counterparts. The statistics show that we are making that vision a reality, with year-on-year improvements.

Application forms and further information on how to apply are available to download from the following websites: http://www.nidirect.gov.uk/allirelandscholarships – http://www.delni.gov.uk and http://www.deni.gov.uk. CCEA website http://www.ccea.org.uk and Colleges NI www.collegesni.com.

The closing date for receipt of application forms is 26th June 2015.

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Posted by Newry Times News on Apr 23 2015. Filed under Community, Jobs & Careers, What's On. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry