by Alan Jacques
Picture: Alan Place/FusionShooters.
LIMERICK Institute of Technology’s plans to grow its scholarship programme to a value of €1 million over the next three years will benefit students in Deis Schools looking for a route into Higher Education.
Launched this Wednesday in Thomond Park by Paul O’Connell, the Leaders@LIT Student Scholarship Programme, an initiative of the LIT Foundation, is currently supported to the value of €500,000 and sustains 38 students in their studies at LIT.
“What we want to do is simply allow people who would otherwise experience significant financial barriers, to fully concentrate on their studies in higher education. This is a really important part of LIT’s ethos,” said President of LIT, Dr Maria Hinfelaar.
“The reason that we are now moving to increase the value of our sponsorship programme to €1 million is that we want to make more scholarships available, following the highly successful rollout of our initial scholarships where we partnered with our local school, St Nessan’s (the newly named Thomond Community College).”
Students from seven schools are currently studying in LIT thanks to the scholarship programme. These include: Salesian’s College, Crescent College, Colaiste Nano Nagle on Sexton Street, St Nessan’s, Desmond College in Newcastle West, Colaiste Iosaef in Kilmallock and Colaiste Chiaráin in Croom.
Principal of St Nessan’s School, Eugene O’Brien explained, “This programme allows students’ aspirations to become realities. It puts Higher Education within the reach of students whose pathway is blocked by financial circumstances rather than their ability or ambition.”
