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When most international students think of studying in Ireland, they automatically think Dublin. And, although Dublin is a fantastic place to study – there are also other amazing places on our small island of Ireland that will be just as – if not more – memorable for you to start your international studies. Why not study in Cork?!

DIFC are opening a new centre in Ireland’s second largest city, Cork this September – and so it poses the question from many students, ‘Why should I study in Cork?’.

Obviously there are a whole range of reasons why you should consider studying in Cork, but we have narrowed it down for you to just seven of the top reasons to study in Cork.

7. Food, Glorious Food!

If food is your thing, then Cork will be absolute heaven! It really is the Culinary Capital of Ireland and home to the world famous, English Market. The English Market is a great place buy basically any type of food imaginable – and when you are looking for something a little more specialty (perhaps something from home) and not just the typical Irish meat and potatoes – then this is definitely the place to go. Open every day except Sundays, this market has become one of the biggest ones in Europe and is now viewed as a tourist attraction. There is also a great range of local eateries and speciality shops/supermarkets, such as The Quay Co-op, for you to find absolutely anything you’re looking for.

6. The City is no Stranger to Young People

Cork is an excellent place for young people to study, simply because the city is brimming with a vibrant young adult population. Needless to say, students will never lack opportunities to make friends and interact with their peers. In fact, Cork is home to 30,000 international students – in addition to the locals – so there is plenty of opportunity to mix and mingle with other young people and make loads of new friends from all corners of the globe.

5. You can get career ready with a degree from Cork Institute of Technology

Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) offers a wide range of courses – 73 in fact! – covering Business, Engineering, Science, Computing, Humanities, Media, Art and Music. All of these programmes are specifically designed with your future career development in mind to help maximise your employment opportunities on graduation. And, given you can stay on in Ireland for up to 12 months after you undergraduate degree, it poses a great opportunity for you to get your career off to a great start with some international work experience.

4. The feeling of a College town in a City

For a small city, Cork punches well above its weight with it comes to fun and entertainment. As a college town, the weekends start on Thursday night, so be sure to hit up any number of pubs or clubs to meet some locals. You can also catch regular live gig featuring international artists and some great local Irish talent. In the mood for something more laid back? Catch a movie at the Triskel Christchurch, which is a movie theatre and arts centre in a converted church. Cork is basically one big festival, with a year round calendar packed with everything from a Jazz Festival, Film Festival, Midsummer Festival, Comedy Festival, Harbour Festival, Folk Festival, Oktoberfest, Short Story Festival and so much more! You really couldn’t get much more in terms of things to do in your down time!

3. Cork is a hub for entrepreneurship

As one of Ireland’s major cities, Cork is noted as a centre of entrepreneurship and employment generation. Many international companies have established offices in Cork, resulting in the creation of specialist clusters in the life sciences, information technology, and agri-food sectors. Cork is the home of a vibrant IT industry and is a significant location for EMC, IBM, VMware and Apple amongst others – many of which have links to our Cork University/College partners for work placements and research programmes.

2. It is home to one of Ireland’s leading Universities, University College Cork

Voted Ireland’s University of the Year for three years running, University College Cork is such a well-known and respected University in Ireland. It offers a rich student experience and high standard in their academic programmes. They offer a total package for international students with their programmes designed to make you “work ready, world ready”. UCC programmes are fully integrated with industry to give you work placement opportunities, as well as the opportunity to study in state-of-the-art facilities.

Welcome to University College Cork - 2016

1. You can access exclusive Foundation Scholarships with DIFC Cork

To celebrate the opening of DIFC’s new centre in Cork this September 2017, we are offering exclusive scholarships for students choosing to study in Cork!

Science & Engineering students will receive a €2,000 Engineering/Science Foundation Scholarship by studying in our Cork centre. Not only that, if you progress to a Science/Engineering related degree with University College Cork, they will also offer you a scholarship worth 25% your tuition fees – which is a huge saving on the cost of your international studies!

In addition, international students looking to study Medicine/Nursing with one of our mainland Europe Medicine partners can avail of an exclusive €2,200 European Medicine Foundation Scholarship by studying in our Cork centre. Our current European Medicine partners are:

  • Charles University, Czech Republic
  • University of Debrecen, Hungary
  • Lithuania University of Health Sciences
  • European University Cyprus

Find out more about DIFC’s new Cork centre here

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