Transition Year students get an early taste of university

This week over 90 Transition Year students have started in DCU as part of the Early University Entrance programme. The programme is designed to give students with high academic ability a chance to participate in selected first year degree modules on one day each week during their transition year. Taking modules in Engineering, Maths, Psychology or Law & Politics, the early entrants will be subject to the same rigor and assessment as the regular first years.

The programme was developed by Dr. Catriona Ledwith at the Centre for Talented Youth, Ireland. “It’s going to be academically demanding, but I know that these bright students will more than rise to the challenge” she said.

The programme is based on a similar one Ledwith ran as part of her PhD. She says “the original early entrants achieved good grades, and at times out-performed the regular first year students. These students are more than capable of studying at university level, although they are quite young by comparison.”

She says, “Parents and teaching of very bright students worry about the idea of sending children off to college early and rightly so. We have seen cases in the newspapers of youngsters in different countries who were packed off to university because they had genius capabilities. Many however had a very difficult time, because there was no one there to watch out for them. They were children amongst adults. The difference here is that there is a strong support system in place: formally through the Centre for Talented Youth, and informally, through the large number of early entrants.”

Dr. Colm O’Reilly, director of the Centre for Talented Youth comments, “I believe that early university entrance is an excellent way for TY students to try out courses that they may want to take when they finish school. Too often many students make poor choices when picking a university course as they have no experience of what the course might be like.”

CTYI is collaborating with the Schools of Law & Government, Electronic Engineering, Mechanical & Manufacturing Engineering, Nursing & Human Sciences and Mathematical Sciences on the programme. The programme is available to high ability students who demonstrate the necessary motivation and maturity to participate in university at a young age.