Uversity

Uversity is all about YOU!
Come to Ireland with your aspirations and fears, and the Uversity team will help you achieve and overcome.
With Suzie and Grainne, you'll feel totally supported.
Dr. Helen Phelan will guide your learning and exploration.
Tap into your wildest dreams and make them a reality!

I treasure the time my group (2016) spends together; hearing about the discoveries and challenges of other artists, I've found no better way to gain confidence in my own ability. As a team, Uversity helps you accomplish; after a core module session, I always feel energised and inspired -- Thanks Uversity!

Uversity's program is unlike any other. They give us, the students, the power and freedom to choose the classes we want and the projects we are passionate about. Instead of trying to fit us all into one academic mold, they change the boundaries of what higher education means in order to fit different people with different personalities and strengths.
Aside from the wonderful academic aspects, I also feel like Uversity is great at bringing people together. From the bond between the students and staff, to our engagement with local culture - going to festivals, having members of the local artistic community come and talk to us, etc... - Uversity has helped me understand Ireland a little bit better and feel even more at home in this already very welcoming country.

Uversity is an interesting and experimental sort of academic program. You can choose what classes you want to take from a limited roster issued by most universities in Ireland. The roster can be a bit unclear, but if you ask a member of the staff they'll try to help you get into whatever class you want. They'll also help you pursue professional opportunities. They've helped me in that way, and I really appreciate it.

I was walking with a friend up North Great George's Street, north of the River Liffey in Dublin, at the end of which is a beautiful building named Belvedere College once attended by Joyce and immortalised in his memorable "Portrait of the Artist." Looking back I realised that on this same street you could find the James Joyce Centre, which contains a vast array of information and documents on Joyce's early literature and other memorabilia, as well as the home of a famous Joycean scholar. On the quays, or rather bridging them, we saw the marvellous Samuel Beckett bridge, a white harp connecting the north and the south docks of Dublin, whose gleam at night is a marvel and whose greatest fault is its distance from a more central and populated location. In Merrion Square, south of the Liffey, an emerald and pink stone Oscar Wilde lounges brazenly, his open legs and ironic leer startling the onlooker with the same comic and sharp wit to be found in his drama and prose. In Cork City, the Frank O'Connor house sits sleepily wedged like a short story snuggled in a collection. Ireland is the home of modern writing. From Edna O'Brien to Anne Enright, the tradition continues, as lively as ever, and with a flavour to be found nowhere else in the world. International film, drama, and poetry festivals are witness to a country whose love for (in my case literary) art is very much a part of its heritage.

The Uversity programme immerses its students in these environments and provides the media through which the student can be artistically inspired. The proximity of the programme to partner universities also allows the student to nourish their intellectual curiosity as well as to foster relationships with star faculty. And though the programme has its requirements, it is never rigid enough that it will prevent the student from enjoying the inevitable ups and downs of life that come from adventuring in a foreign country.

As an Audiovisual graduate, I tend to appreciate artistic expression in all of its forms. I’m thrilled to have studied the cinematographic language, but then I felt the urge to expand this knowledge and an eagerness to voice my inventive impulses in various ways. That’s why getting to know the Uversity’s programme changed my mindset completely. I see it as the perfect possibility of continuing to develop my own creative vision on different platforms, such as TV, cinema, the internet, written media and, of course, multiple ones that mix different platforms together, most of which I have deep interest in, despite very little practice.

Other than that, being surrounded by people with similar interests and dispositions as mine makes so much sense to me. The fact that during the programme, the student has the ability to explore different locations and cultures also attracts me a lot. It seems to me that being able to get involved in distinct places with particular habits can affect the aspects of one’s learning process and creative expression in an incredible way.

Aside from building knowledge, the courses are giving me unique perspective into how someone’s point of view influences their understanding of art, and that we are continually susceptible to go through mind-changing experiences. There are many ways to look at a work of art; we must always be open to interpretation and discussion. This variance fascinates me the most, and that’s why I find it in me a drive to keep investigating and learning new things constantly.

I like having the freedom to change my mind every so often if I feel like it’s necessary and being able to communicate that, and to have thoughtful conversations about it with everyone in the programme. It’s great to have access to wonderful cultural events, organisations and artists and to share these experiences with the other students. It can be scary, but it's also very empowering to make my own decisions and to take risks.