INFORMATION FOR COORDINATORS AT PARTNER UNIVERSITIES

We are looking forward to welcoming your nominated students to NUI Galway in 2013/14!  We receive over 300 Erasmus students each year, the majority arriving in September to study here for the first semester or for the full year.  This means that we must process a large number of incoming student applications in early summer every year.  Below we have listed a few points which we'd ask you to keep in mind at the nomination/application stage, in order to ensure that the process runs as smoothly as possible for everyone concerned.

Nominating Students
We would request that you nominate only as many students as specified in our bilateral agreement and, unless there is a prior, mutually agreed alternative arrangement, please bear in mind that where the bilateral agreement mentions a stay of one full academic year, this should not be interpreted as two students for a semester each.

Students must indicate from the beginning whether they wish to study here for a full year or just one semester.  Please note that it won’t be possible at a later stage for them to extend a single-semester study visit to full-year.

Application Documentation
It may sound obvious, but please impress on your students the importance of writing legibly in BLOCK LETTERS when completing the form, and of double-checking all their details before submitting the form – for instance, students sometimes give us an incorrect e-mail address, or an incomplete postal address; investigating and rectifying these errors is time-consuming for us.  Moreover, illegible handwriting can result in errors on ID cards. 

Please ensure that forms bear the signature AND stamp of the Erasmus coordinator.

It will help us if individual coordinators could gather the application forms from their students and send them to us collectively so that all applications from the same university and subject area arrive together.

Only hard (i.e. paper) copies of the application form should be sent to us.  Please do not fax us any application forms, and use electronic versions of applications only as a last resort in an absolute emergency.  Please do not send us electronic or faxed copies of applications as a back-up: these will only generate additional work and create confusion at this very busy time.  Please do, however, keep (for your own records) a copy of the applications that are being sent to us.

Accompanying Documentation
We do not need CVs or examination transcripts from students of Humanities/Languages/Business/Law – the application form will suffice, as we will take the coordinator’s nomination as proof of eligibility.  In the Sciences, Engineering, Information Technology and Medicine , however, we do require, as heretofore, full details of the students’ academic careers, as it will be necessary for the relevant faculty here at NUI Galway to review these in order to ensure that the students have the appropriate experience and background to follow the courses they are selecting.

Visas for non-EU nationals
If some of your students will need a visa to enter Ireland, please bear in mind that the process may take six to eight weeks, and encourage them to start make their application in good time.  They will find useful information on page 7 of our Information Brochure, and on the website http://www.inis.gov.ie/ (click on "visas").

Subject choice, modules, Learning Agreements, ECTS
Until the 2013/14 Visiting Student Handbook is published, a signature of an NUI Galway staff member on a Learning Agreement represents an approval in principle only, and does not constitute any guarantee that certain courses will be available or that a student will be admitted to a particular course.  We expect the new handbook to be available in late Summer.  (See http://www.nuigalway.ie/erasmus/incoming/courses.html - it is important to note that only certain courses are available to visiting students, so students should base their course selections only on modules listed in the Visiting Student Handbook.) 

English-language requirements
While NUI Galway does not require its incoming Erasmus students to present a formal certificate as proof of competency in English, it is nonetheless vital that they have a good command of the language, both written and spoken, so that they will be able to follow lectures, participate in small-group coursework, and write their assignments and exams without undue difficulty.  We would recommend a level of B2 on the European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Visiting Student Modules in the Discipline of English
In the case of students of Languages/Philology, please be aware that Linguistics is not one of the predominant research areas in our English Dept, and so the range of courses offered at NUI Galway in LINGUISTICS is extremely limited.  Prospective students and their coordinators should study carefully the course offerings in the Dept of English so that any potential difficulties in meeting home university credit requirements are identified in advance.
Please note also that while the Discipline of English at NUI Galway offers a wide selection of modules to visiting students, with a sufficient number of seminar- and lecture-based modules available to accommodate all visiting students, seminar-based modules are delivered to small groups of students, so that numbers are limited, and demand sometimes outstrips supply. For this reason we wish to remind coordinators and visiting students that entry to seminar-based modules can never be guaranteed, and that in any case visiting students may only register for one seminar course per semester.  Such restrictions will not apply in the case of lecture-based modules. 

Arrival dates, late arrivals, home university examinations
Please note also that students will be required to be in attendance right from the beginning of the academic year.  Teaching will begin on Monday, 2nd September, and our Orientation Programme (compulsory) for new international students will take place on the preceding Thursday, 29^th August.  Please bear this in mind when making your nominations.  Students who arrive late will miss the all-important first weeks of the semester and thus they will be at a significant disadvantage.  Moreover, once the date for course registration has passed (usually about 7 - 10 days after teaching starts), it will be impossible for us to register them at all.  If you anticipate students being unable to travel to Galway in time, then perhaps they might be best considered for an alternative host university with a later start date.

In particular, when scheduling stays of one single semester, coordinators should compare the academic calendars of both institutions (see our academic term dates) in order to ensure that the time-frames are compatible.

We must also remind you that it is not possible for NUI Galway to arrange for visiting students to sit the examinations of their home university at this institution.  We regret that we simply do not have the space or the resources to accommodate requests of this nature, and would kindly ask for your understanding in this matter.

When your students commence their studies in Galway …
… they may require your assistance in making their final course selection, or may need your advice on credits, suitability of  courses, etc.  You should ensure that they are able to contact you (or a colleague) at that time by phone or e-mail.

You may find it useful to consult our Frequently Asked Questions page (see left-hand menu).  Please feel free to contact us with any other queries. 

Many thanks for your valued cooperation!

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