UCC Receives Award for Outstanding International Student Satisfaction
University College Cork achieved an ‘Award for Outstanding International Student Satisfaction’ with a score of 9.5+, and were recognised as the winner of ‘Most Satisfied Students 2015-16’. UCC’s International Student Blog, UCC International, equally conveys the longstanding sense of welcome towards its international students, as the friendly environment around the campus and within clubs & societies is discussed within various posts on the blog. Cork is also generally mentioned as being a “great city,” due to its safe and inviting nature towards its international students. One American student, Elena Montes, reflects in her blog post about how the students she encountered during her time in UCC aided her in establishing a ‘routine’ for herself as she settled into both the city and the university.Following its first place finish in last year’s International Student Satisfaction Awards, the Republic of Ireland now finds itself looking up from second place at Norway in the top position. Despite a slip in the rankings Ireland still maintains its impressive reputation amongst international students, according to StudyPortals’ latest findings.Irish universities collectively achieved an overall score of 9.2 on the awards board, just shy of Norway’s impressive score of 9.3. Polish universities landed themselves in third place with 9.1 in the rankings, whereas the United Kingdom fell to fifth place with an overall score of 9.1.These merits are handed out by StudyPortals based on a marking scheme that averages out the various universities’ collective scores, per country on average. The awards are based on the comments of international students attending the institutions, with any awarded university must have received at least 20 reviews. The ‘Award for Outstanding International Student Satisfaction’ is achieved by a rating of 9.5 or higher, with a score of 9.0 and up resulting in the ‘Award for Excellent International Student Satisfaction’, and the ‘Award for Very Good International Student Satisfaction’ is achieved with a score of 8.0 and above.UCC wasn’t the only Irish University to win big, with Mary Immaculate College & University of Limerick achieving an ‘Award for Outstanding International Student Satisfaction’ with a score 9.5+ The welcoming atmosphere was the key to their success, with one German Erasmus student said was apparent even on the Mary I. website, adding that she “experienced the openness and kindness of the [Irish] people” during her time at the college.University College Dublin also received an “Award for Excellent International Student Satisfaction” this year with their score of 9+.As UCC adds yet another award to its belt of achievements, both international and national, the academic year 2015-2016 is proved to be an all-round successful one. Not just for UCC, but for Cork city in general, as both of its leading institutes of education were winners in the prestigious The Sunday Times Awards, with the top prize for University of the Year 2015/16 going to UCC, and Cork Institute of Technology winning the award for Institute of Technology of the Year. The Cork colleges will be hoping to do the double, as the Sunday Times Awards are to be announced any day now.