Students celebrating as offers from top universities come rolling in…

In line with their delivering excellence values, South Eastern Regional College (SERC) is pleased to announce that students from across the College have successfully secured offers from top universities including Queens University Belfast, Ulster University, University of Dundee, the University of Manchester and Northumbria to name a few.

47 students from the HNC health and social care course are celebrating after securing offers to study on some of the top degree courses at a range of universities such as nursing, social work, midwifery, phycology and study social sciences. This is an increase of 35% from last year.

100% of students who applied to study at university got an interview, with many securing their first choice and multiple offers from their chosen universities. 80% of students from the class secured offers for all five of their university choices.

Student from the course Veronica Heatley from Bangor was offered a place at Queens University Belfast  to study social work and was also pleased to find out that she had been offered places at all five of her choices.

Veronica explains:

“I’m absolutely thrilled to have been offered a place at such a prestigious university.  I was given a lot of support by SERC throughout the interview process, with members of staff conducting practice interviews and preparing me for questions they might ask.

“As a mother of two I thought university was out of reach for me, but the tutors are so supportive and encouraging. The fact that so many of us got offers really is testament to the course and the excellent tutors and I would encourage others to consider SERC as a first option.”

Mother of two Veronica completed the course full-time as well as raising her young family who are aged 4 and 6.

SERC careers staff held a session about preparing for an interview, which was useful for students hoping to go on to university, an apprenticeship or straight into employment. Students went through the importance of first impressions, body language and question examples and discussed student finance.

Course tutor Frank Carter, who was shortlisted in the Teacher of the year category of the TES FE Awards in 2016 said:

“I am delighted that the students’ hard work and dedication has paid off. These results further enhance SERC’s ’culture of excellence’ and prove that we are helping to set the standard of study within Northern Ireland. SERC has a successful programme of support for getting students through the stressful university application process, from helping to draft personal statements, to trips to university open days. We are thrilled that yet again our students are receiving offers from top universities.”