On Thursday 23rd April, the Minister for Education and Skills, Jan O’Sullivan TD, presented six students from Waterford Institute of Technology (WIT) with awards at a ceremony for international students held in Farmleigh, Dublin.
Two of the students received Government of Ireland scholarships which provide full funding for the completion of Masters degrees. The recipients were Brazilian students, Adriano Bassoi, who is currently studying for a Masters degree in Business in Internationalisation, and Dawton Marques who is studying on the Masters in Computing, Information Systems Processes programme.
The scholarships are awarded by the Department of Education and Skills and the Higher Education Authority on a competitive basis in a call open to all Irish higher education institutions.
“WIT has always performed very well in the process and has been awarded six of the thirty scholarships available for all Irish higher education institutions nationally for 2015”, commented Don O’Neill, project coordinator at WIT’s International Office. “Such scholarships enable us to attract the highest calibre of student to WIT and build long lasting relationships with these students who will go on to become important advocates for the Institute and the city in the years ahead” added Mr O’Neill.
Minister Jan O’Sullivan also presented awards to four WIT international student ambassadors. The ambassadors Ana Carolina Cunha (Brazil), Arindham Pal (India), Kivilcim Çelik (Turkey) and YuTian Koh (Malaysia) were selected by ‘Education in Ireland’ to promote Ireland, and WIT in particular, as a destination for higher education studies. During the course of the year, the students contributed to a blog and were frequent contributors to various social media platforms used by WIT’s International office to promote the Institute worldwide.
“Our international student ambassadors give a real flavour of student life in Waterford and give glowing accounts of life in their adopted city through their blog and social media posts. They have also become lifetime friends and ambassadors for Ireland and WIT” commented John Joe O’Farrell, Student Ambassador Coordinator at WIT.
At the ceremony Minister O’Sullivan referred to the growing importance of internationalisation for Irish higher education and to Ireland’s social and economic fabric. She concluded by expressing the hope that the students currently studying here would continue to be enthusiastic ambassadors for Ireland globally in the years ahead.
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