“I feel like I’m doing it in her memory. I feel like I’m doing everything that she wanted to, but couldn’t.”
Megan Higgins (34), from Ballyhaunis in Co Mayo, decided to apply for a general nursing course through the tertiary degree programme - a route to securing a third-level degree - two years ago when her sister, Samantha, who was sitting the Leaving Certificate at the time, asked if she would do it with her.
The first year of the five-year course was completed through the Education and Training Board (ETB) in Dunmore, Co Galway, with students then moving on to the Atlantic Technological University in Castlebar to complete their degrees.
Entry to the programme is not based on CAO points, but on an interview process. There are no fees for the time spent studying at the ETB and the system offers flexibility to students who need to live closer to home.
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For Megan, she felt it was her way to “break into education” having worked as a carer and become a mother to two children since leaving school. Samantha was instrumental in her decision to go ahead with it.
“It was beautiful summer’s day, and I was sat on the back door step at my mother’s with Samantha when she told me about the course. She said: ‘What are you going to do? Wait another year?’ So I applied,” Megan said.
While they had planned to do the course together, Samantha got enough points to go straight into general nursing in Castlebar. Megan still went ahead and started her tertiary degree at Dunmore ETB. “It was the best thing that I’ve ever done.”
One year into their respective nursing studies, Samantha (19) was killed in a road crash last July.
“It’s really hard to get my head around the fact I will be a nurse and she won’t be here,” Megan said. “But I think that gives me a drive to succeed and to do that for me and for her, and for her memory.
“Believe me, there’s been days where I thought I can’t do this any more. But I just see Samantha in my head saying, you have to do it.”
Under an expansion of the tertiary degree programme, announced on Wednesday, students will be able to study primary teaching without having secured the CAO points traditionally required for a university course.
This pathway into teaching will take five years to complete and will be delivered by Tipperary ETB or Limerick and Clare ETB, before progressing to Mary Immaculate College for years two to five, culminating in a Level 8 Bachelor of Education in Primary Teaching.
It is one of 32 new tertiary bachelor’s degree routes that will be open to applications for the upcoming 2026/2027 academic year.
The tertiary programme was first unveiled in 2023, with 13 courses on offer and 148 students participating. It will have 1,200 students and 78 courses later this year. Some of the degrees include social care, politics and media, business, computing with AI and occupational therapy.
The programme aims to fill skills gaps across certain sectors while also offering students a more inclusive route into college.
Tanya Jones, head of the National Tertiary Office, said the programme “opens doors for people who may never have seen third-level education as an option and offers a real chance to progress into higher education without the traditional barriers that can hold people back”.
She added: “It removes the traditional obstacles, such as point requirements, but also reduces the financial pressures and [increases] geographical reach. It is a different route to exactly the same degree, but in a much more supportive environment for the students.”
