Hard times ahead but first years will have it the hardest
AS Grace Donnellan prepares to start her final year at University College Dublin, she has more questions than answers about what lies in store.
How many hours a week will she spend at lectures on campus?
How many days will she need to travel the 45km from her home in Sallins, Co. Kildare, to the university campus on the southside of Dublin? And will most of her study be online?
But despite the uncertainty and the unanswered questions, the 21-year-old final year law and politics student counts herself lucky.
Grace said: ‘I’m going into my final year and I have made my college friends but for
‘Students will just be drifting in and out’
first years it will very difficult. Going into first year is a big transition and everyone finds it difficult especially at UCD because it’s huge.
‘In first year, you don’t really know about lectures, you don’t know what’s expected of you and it will be very difficult for first years this year because they will just be drifting in and out of the college without being able to stay to make friends.
‘First year is all about making friends and they won’t really be able to do that.
‘I’ll miss being on campus and going to the cafes every day with my friends instead of just drifting in and out of college.
‘But I don’t know how its going to work with lectures. We have to register this week and we will get our time tables this week. It’s all a bit vague but I think I’ll probably be in college for two or three days a week at most, but it could be one or two days.
‘For me it won’t be so bad if I’m mostly at home because this year it’s all about academics. I’m hoping to organise myself better.’
Generations of students have started their first week at UCD attending a welcome ceremony hosted by the university president.
Each of them are given a university scarf bearing the college’s traditional colour of gold and sapphire.
At the end of the ceremony all the first-year students are invited to drape the scarf over their shoulders and invite the person next to them out for a cup of tea or coffee.
This simple gesture has led to the start of many a lifelong friendship but sadly, because of Covid-19, the ceremony has been cancelled this year.
However, in National University of Ireland Galway the students’ union is determined that first-year students are given a personal welcome.
And, according to the NUIG Students’ Union welfare officer Róisín Nic Lochlainn, there are plans to organise speed-friend meetings to help first-year students settle in.
She said: ‘We have a fun events crew and we are going to tailor events to help first years build relationships.
‘We’re here to help and we are going to have social distancing events, outdoor cinema and social distance speed-friending events.’