This article is from page 21 of the 2009-08-11 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 21 JPG
RECENTLY released figures from the European Student Barometer sur- vey show that Limerick Institute of Technology (LIT) students rate their college more highly than students of other Irish and European colleges are ranking their own institutes.
The European Student Barometer is an online student survey which is conducted independently by the re- Search institute, Trendence; it’s the largest survey on career, education and employer topics in Europe. This year, over 195,000 students from more than 775 European institutes in 22 European countries answered the SHAY
In the “evaluation of university/col- lege performance” section of the re- port, LIT students ranked the college above the national and European rat- ings for practical course content, lec- turer/tutor availability and helpful- ness, course content and structure, teaching quality, accommodation availability, assistance with career planning, and inexpensive location.
In terms of practical course content, 86.4 per cent of LIT students believe that the college’s course content is good or better, as opposed to the na- tional average of 73 per cent who be- lieve their college or university have practical course content.
Active learning through a fusion
of theory and practice is a term which LIT has coined to describe the hands-on and practical nature of their programmes, and with statis- tics like this, the college says their programmes, which provide practi- cal learning for students, continue to thrive.
The report also queried students on their top reasons for choosing an institute or college. 62.2 per cent of LIT students said course content and structure are the most important fac- tors when choosing a college or uni- versity course.
Dr Maria Hinfelaar, President of LIT, said these sort of statistics confirm LIT’s choice to introduce exciting new programmes. “We have a great number of new pro- grammes that have been validated and are ready for their first in-take of students in September. These programmes have been developed with industry and professional bod- ies to fill gaps in terms of education provision in Ireland and will have excellent career prospects for these students when they have graduated. Programmes include: Business Stud- ies with Sports Management, Build- ing Surveying, Good Manufacturing Practice & Technology, Investiga- tion Techniques and IT Security, and more. These programmes will be available via direct entry application to LIT in August,” she added.