The Irish Universities Association has partnered with RTÉ to create My Uni Life, a five-part docuseries which follows the lives of 7 students at various points of their academic career.
The students represent 7 of 5,000 students whose desire to succeed at third level education is facilitated and supported by the Access and Disability programmes run by Irish Universities. The series was filmed over the last 12 months, as it follows the personal struggles and journey taken by the students, with a genuine insight into their lives. It follows the students as they traverse the education system, as well as their struggles adapting to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the subsequent move to remote learning.
Adam Freegrove, one of the 7 featured students, is a medical student here at UCD who entered the university through the HEAR scheme. After losing his grandfather to cancer, Adam decided to pursue a career in medicine, all while a carer for his disabled mother.
In speaking on the effect of the series, Adam stated: “The documentary has made me realise exactly how lucky I’ve been to come from where I did. It’s just redoubled my resolve to continue doing what I’m doing and do the best I can and be the best I can be. I want to make my family proud of what they’ve helped me become.”
Commenting on the role of Irish Universities, Director General of the Irish Universities stated: Irish universities play a crucial and growing role in fostering and enabling social inclusion and mobility.”
In support of this sentiment, he stated that “in the 2017/18 academic year 15% of entrants were from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, while almost 10% of new entrants had some form of disability and 6.6% were mature students.”
In the Academic Year 2019/20, 2,340 students entered first year in the 7 universities through HEAR Scheme, 1,645 students entered through DARE Scheme and 1,718 students entered as mature students.
Beginning the 6th of November at 7:30pm, the series will run for five weeks across RTÉ One.
Adam Doyle – Reporter
