Sir, – Trinity College Dublin deserves credit for its long-running access programme's foundation course for higher education ("Trinity access graduates celebrate second chance at education", News, June 15th).
Courses like these provide a lifeline to adults who, for whatever reasons, failed to complete their secondary education.
Mature students bring with them valuable life experiences and a strong sense of motivation which contributes considerably to success in their subsequent studies and which also enriches the experience of their younger fellow students.
Probably the first course of this kind in Ireland started in 1973 at Magee College Derry, part of what was then called the New University of Ulster.
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This course, which was subsequently extended to the university’s Jordanstown campus, operated successfully for over 25 years, enabling thousands of mature students from the North and many from the Republic to progress to further and higher education, some of them to doctoral level. – Yours, etc,
Dr PETER
PYNE,
(Former tutor,
Certificate in
Foundation Studies
for Mature Students,
Ulster University),
Derry.