Julie Duke returned to education as a mature student, and says her DCU course 'was the making of me and helped me in more ways than one'.

Julie is proud of her Traveller heritage. She was nervous about going to third level, particularly as she had left education when she was 14 years old.

She expected that being a Traveller, “I will stick out like a sore thumb. The biggest eye opener for me was the acceptance that I got. I was a DCU student. I was there to learn and there was no difference between me or any other student doing the course.”

Having an internship built into her degree was part of what attracted Michelle (Jia Ern) Aw to DCU; she has since graduated with a BSc in Actuarial Mathematics.

Her love of maths came in secondary school where it influenced her choice of course for third level.

Michelle, who is from Malaysia, said, “I wanted to study abroad and to do Actuarial Mathematics.”

The process for studying in Ireland was more convenient than other English speaking countries and she chose DCU.

Bobby Cudden was determined to get to DCU so when his Leaving Certificate results were not what he had wanted, he did a PLC to ensure he could study science at his university of choice.

He was also a successful basketball player having represented Ireland at under 17 level and the location of the DCU campus in Glasnevin was close to his team Tolka Rovers.

Bobby, from County Louth, said, “I was one of the very lucky ones because I  knew I wanted to do science from the time I was about 13 or 14 years old.”