Supports for Social Sciences Students

If you fail to pass a module, don’t panic. There are options to remediate this module. The following 3 options are available for students to complete the credit requirements of the programme. Read more here

Your Social Sciences Student Advisers

Student Advisers can assist students in finding pathways to deal with personal, social and emotional issues and can advise of appropriate UCD policies, procedures and services, for example, advice on financial supports or academic challenges. 

Visit the UCD Student Advisers website to learn more about this valuable support to current students.
 

Relevant Policies and Guidance

If you are experiencing difficulties during your time in UCD, accessing supports and being aware of your options at the earliest point is advisable. See below for some policies that may be relevant to you:

• Extenuating Circumstances Policy
• Leave of Absence and Withdrawal Policies

Student Health Service, Counselling, Welfare Officer and Chaplaincy 

Your Student Health Service provides a wide range of healthcare supports on campus; routine and urgent, including doctor appointments, prescriptions, sexual and reproductive health, screening and mental health.

Your Student Counselling Service is a free and confidential service staffed by professionally qualified psychologists and counsellors.

UCD Estates operate (opens in a new window)Unicare, which provides medical assistance and emergency medical information to students and staff on campus. This service operates an emergency line, 01 716 7999, which is operated 24 hours a day.

(opens in a new window)Students' Union Health and Wellbeing: The UCD SU website provides information and contact details for the SU Welfare Officer.

Chaplains are available throughout the year for support, guidance and advice in complete confidence for all students, "of all faiths and none". An open-door policy exists to enable you to feel welcome and to seek assistance, especially in times of distress, illness and bereavement. 

Peer Mentors

University Societies

With over 80 recognised societies, UCD has something for everyone. Societies are an excellent way to make friends and be part of the UCD Community outside of the classroom.  See more about all of (opens in a new window)UCD's Student Societies here.

Class Reps

UCD Writing Centre provides free, one-to-one tuition and a range of workshops on all aspects of the writing process. 

Your key contacts to help you understand your fees and financial planning are listed below.

Many students could not succeed in university without some financial support.  You are encouraged to seek advice and support on the range of grants and financial assistance available to you. Click on the links below for contacts, deadlines and information.  

Fees

The Student Desk in the Tierney Building is your first port-of-call for queries on your fees and fee status. The Student Desk can assist international students with documents to open a bank account in Ireland.

Information on Student Contribution and Student Centre Levy charges may be found on the Fees and Grants website. Click here for information on current charges.

Grants

The Student Grant Scheme is the main financial support available for eligible students attending full-time programmes at UCD. Click here for more information on applications and deadlines. 

(opens in a new window)SUSI (Student Universal Support Ireland) is Ireland’s single national awarding authority for all higher and further education grants. See their website for full details on whether you are eligible for a grant, the process and deadlines. 

Financial Assistance

There are a number of forms of financial assistance in UCD. Click on the links below for contacts, eligibility and further details.

• The Student Support Fund (SSF) is a means-tested fund intended to help students who are experiencing financial challenges in college as a result of ongoing low income. 
• Student Welfare Fund: The purpose of this discretionary fund is to offer financial assistance to students who encounter acute and unexpected difficulties during their time of study in UCD. 
• UCD Access and Lifelong Learning provide Scholarships & Financial Supports.
• The (opens in a new window)UCD Student's Union provide information and advice on the SU financial schemes to support students.

Scholarships

UCD Access and Lifelong Learning are here to help you receive the supports that you may need in managing your disability whilst studying in UCD.

Register
For help regarding disability, please register to receive these supports by filling out and submitting a UCD Evidence of Disability Form.  If you have already registered for support and you have a query please email (opens in a new window)disability@ucd.ie or attend on our Disability Support Drop In Sessions.

Irish Sign Language Interpreter: if you require an Irish Sign Language Interpreter for an event or ad hoc session it is necessary to make this request at least two weeks in advance to disability@ucd.ie to give yourself the best possible chance of sourcing an interpreter.

More information
DARE students and students wishing to register for disability supports can find more information on the support available here on the Access and Lifelong Learning website, including:

• contact details for designated support people in Access and Lifelong Learning
• classroom and exam accommodations and assistance
• slides from UCD Access and Lifelong Learning's information session for students and parents/guardians
• guides to managing your disability.

Please find more inofrmation at Orientation

Trouble focusing on your work? Having difficulties concentrating?

Enhance your focus, motivation and accountability with free, supervised, neuroinclusive study sessions.

The UCD Library team is here to support your learning, research and preparation for assessment. 

The main library for Social Sciences subjects is the James Joyce Library beside the Newman Building.  The current opening hours can be found here.

Visit the Library's website for subject study guides, check for texts and online resources, and much more: Library Website.

The library search interface OneSearch has recently been updated. Changes include scroll down lists for selecting by content type and a quick link to PDF or full-text if available.

This new page for international students gives basic information on how learning, classes, and assignments work in UCD and study tips on how to succeed. It has been added to the Academic Integrity guide and is available (opens in a new window)here.

Members of Research Services, the College Liaison Librarian Team and the Digital Learning Librarian are working together to deliver a new series of lunchtime webinars. These webinars, aimed at graduate and PhD students, showcase how UCD Library can support their research. The series takes place over 6 weeks in February and March. Each webinar will give an overview of a different topic, followed by a final wrap up and Q & A session. For more information and to register click here

Your Library Liaison is Vanessa Buckley. Her contact details and how she can support your learning is available here: Library Liaison, Social Sciences.

Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology (AT) is a range of tools that may benefit your learning. This includes, for example, software that helps with spelling and grammar, tools to help with organisation  and apps for recording.

Many digital tools are available to all students in UCD, through(opens in a new window) UCD Connect, and there are many assistive technology supports available free of charge to all students from different sources. The (opens in a new window)AHEAD AT HIVE is a brilliant resource to explore if you are interested in learning more about assistive technology for Note Taking, Reading, Writing, Organising and many other key areas of academic life.

Examples of helpful Assistive Technologies

• Grammarly

Grammarly is an easy to use advanced spelling and grammar checker. It detects grammar, spelling and  punctuation errors. It can give feedback on word choice and writing style mistakes in your writing. A free version is available on the (opens in a new window)Grammarly Website.

• Google Speech Recognition.

Google Docs is available to all UCD Students as part of the G Suite. Google docs contains a free dictation tool, allowing users to create a document using their microphone when using Google Docs on a Chrome Browser. It allows users to create documents in Google Docs by using their microphone. Simply speak, and Google Docs types the words you speak. For a free tool, this application is very good at what it does. However, with all these tools, there may be some limitations. Very strong accents may not be detected accurately, and the tool uses Google Translate, with an internet connection to understand words. Response times will depend on your own internet connection.

For more information, and how to install the application, please click (opens in a new window)here.

• Immersive Reader

Immersive Reader is a reading support tool that is a part of Office 365. It can read text aloud and increase the readability of written text. You can increase the spacing between words which can make the information easier to read. There is also the option to add a line focus tool allowing the reader to focus on a sentence without the distraction of other sentences. A guide to Immersive Reader can be found (opens in a new window)here.

•    (opens in a new window)Mind 42

Mind42 is a web-based mind mapping tool that supports brainstorming, collaboration and organizing ideas. Its features include collapsible branches that allow for focus, and the ability to export your mind map into a structured document.

• (opens in a new window)Cogi

Cogi is a free voice recording app that is available for both Android and Apple iOS. Its intuitive interface allows you to bookmark important information in meetings or lectures that you can listen back to later.

• Texthelp Read & Write Gold

Texthelp Read and Write is developed for users with literacy issues, and has been designed with dyslexia in mind. It is available in the Software Downloads section of UCD Connect. It consists of a suite of tools that can assist customers in reading text and creating documents. It operates as a floating toolbar and works seamlessly within Windows applications, such as Microsoft Word and Internet Explorer.

The most commonly used feature in Texthelp is the Read Out Loud Tool, which is used to read text and can be used to proofread content. Other tools included are a spellchecker, dictionary, a tool to convert notes into MP3, colour screening and predictive text.

 UCD Access & Lifelong Learning has an Assistive Technology Specialist who can provide technology and training to students who avail of disability support. Usually, recommendations will be made for AT when you attend your Needs Assessment. If you are avail of Disability Support and would like to look at AT options, please email us to make an appointment with the AT Specialist: disability@ucd.ie

Digital Ambassadors

"Hi we’re your Digital Ambassadors Goodness and Oriana. No question is too small so please drop in to see us with all your technical queries. We would be so happy to see you!"

Available 2:00pm-3:00pm every Wednesday during term-time

UCD ALL facilitates the Digital Ambassador programme to help all students in UCD gain the skills they need with technology to succeed. This support is part of our University for All promoting student in inclusion in UCD. Our digital ambassadors are undergraduate students and Access Leaders here in UCD. They will answer your individual questions and follow up with additional instructions/guides, as necessary.

Come to the Access and Lifelong Learning Centre every Wednesday 2:00pm -3:00pm during term time to have your technical queries answered. 
 

Widening Participation includes, but is not limited to, students who entered UCD by a number of routes or who qualify while at UCD. These include: HEAR and DARE (routes that promote equality of access for students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds or students with a disability or a significant ongoing illness), Mature students, QQI-FE students (students who have entered through the Further Education route), AHSSL Access programme students, students who entered through Open Learning and Sanctuary students

1. Laptop Scheme

The UCD Laptop scheme is available to you if you need a laptop for your studies and may not be able to finance it. This is a long term loan scheme, where eligible students can borrow a new, free laptop for the duration of your studies. This scheme is open to new and continuing students. To be eligible for a laptop you must be registered as a full or part-time student  and be from a low income household. Students who enter through the HEAR pathway, do not need to provide supporting documentation.  Any information disclosed will be treated with confidentiality and respect (UCD 2022c). Non-EU fee-paying students, Erasmus and Study Abroad students are not eligible to apply.

Supporting documentation must be provided to be considered for this scheme. Your application will be assessed on your eligibility, and on the information you provide in the final question of this application. For more information please email (opens in a new window)all@ucd.ie with any queries.

2. Financial Assistance

The Cothrom na Féinne Undergraduate Scholarships are open to new entrants to UCD (First Years) who have accepted an offer to study in UCD and the deadline has just been extended! Applicants must be entering a full-time undergraduate programme of study. All details and the link to apply can be found on the ALL Scholarship Website. 

The PATH 1916 Bursaries are also available to students

The Student Assistance Fund provides financial support to students who are in significant financial difficulty and whose participation in college would be at risk without such support. It is a contributory payment which helps students meet some of the day-to-day costs associated with being in college and supports a number of student finance initiatives at UCD, including:

●      The HEAR Student Support Fund (SSF)

●      Support for Part-time Students

●      Support for Students who are Parenting

Careers Support

Along with our colleague Leonie Phipps from UCD Careers Network, we offer careers workshops exclusive to students linked in with our centre.

Online Workshops

All workshops will be held online. Links to join the events, as well as any employer webinars that are organised, will be shared closer to the time. You can also feel free to check out and attend the other careers events open to all UCD students, as listed on the events page of (opens in a new window)Careers Connect.

One-to-One Appointments

Leonie will be on campus on Mondays (from September 21^st) running face-to-face appointments. You can either book online through (opens in a new window)Careers Connect or reach out to Leonie directly by emailing (opens in a new window)leonie.phipps@ucd.ie. Outside of this time, appointments can also be arranged to take place via Zoom or phone call.