Four undergraduate law students from SETU recently completed three week summer work placements at the Property Registration Authority (PRA), Cork Road, Waterford.
Third year BA in Legal Studies students Adam Duggan, Deirdre Walsh and Sinéad Hogan along with second year BA (Hons) in Law student Tanya Kavanagh took part in the work placements. The students’ work experience included practical experience of all stages of the registration of land ownership and interests for which the PRA has the statutory responsibility in Ireland. Carmel Brennan, Lecturer in Land Law at the Department of Applied Arts and work experience co-ordinator stated “I would like to acknowledge our sincere appreciation to the PRA for their continued support of our law programmes, here at SETU. Work experience is an essential part of third level education and we greatly value the support of the PRA in enhancing our law students’ career paths, following their studies at SETU.”
Sinéad Hogan, a third year BA in Legal Studies student, who worked at the PRA in August, commented, “Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my experience working in the PRA. It was not only fulfilling but educational to me as I have learnt a lot about the complexities of the property registration process. My eyes were opened to the knowledge of law and expertise that was shown throughout all the departments of the Property Registration Authority”.
Tanya Kavanagh, second year BA (Hons) in Law added, “I feel very privileged that I was given this opportunity and I felt very welcomed by everyone involved. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Carmel Brennan who not only organised this experience through SETU, but also encouraged me to apply for the position. I would like to say a massive thank you to John O’Carroll who from day one took me under his wing and guided me through the whole process. He gave me everything that I needed throughout the three weeks and went above and beyond to help with any queries I had. I was very grateful that he organised so many talks for us to attend. It was great to be able to sit with people who had so much expertise and were willing to answer all of my questions.”
The students are selected by the Department of Applied Arts on the basis of academic merit.
According to John O’Carroll, Higher Executive Officer with the PRA, "the Students prepared detailed reports of their exploits during their time here which showed their experience as being very positive and worthwhile. Their enthusiasm and attendance was exemplary and I hope that the Property Registration Authority were able to help them in some way to pursue their careers in the legal profession”.
Dr Richard Hayes, Head of the School of Humanities acknowledged "We are strongly committed to providing our law students with the best possible professionally-oriented education and exposure. The kind of experience our students had with the PRA goes a long way towards this end. We value very much the support of the PRA, and indeed that of the legal and other professions throughout the region, in assisting our Law students. The Law section goes from strength-to-strength in SETU based on such strong, professional partnerships and the teaching and research excellence of our staff. It is noteworthy in this context that recently we launched our LLM degree which will also have a strong professional orientation. This will be a further important contribution to the development of the legal profession on the South-East."
All students are currently completing their final year of studies, at SETU.
For further information about our Law Degree LLB click here.