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Courses
Courses
Choosing a course is one of the most important decisions you'll ever make! View our courses and see what our students and lecturers have to say about the courses you are interested in at the links below.
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University Life
University Life
Each year more than 4,000 choose University of Galway as their University of choice. Find out what life at University of Galway is all about here.
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About University of Galway
About University of Galway
Since 1845, University of Galway has been sharing the highest quality teaching and research with Ireland and the world. Find out what makes our University so special – from our distinguished history to the latest news and campus developments.
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Colleges & Schools
Colleges & Schools
University of Galway has earned international recognition as a research-led university with a commitment to top quality teaching across a range of key areas of expertise.
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Research & Innovation
Research & Innovation
University of Galway’s vibrant research community take on some of the most pressing challenges of our times.
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Business & Industry
Guiding Breakthrough Research at University of Galway
We explore and facilitate commercial opportunities for the research community at University of Galway, as well as facilitating industry partnership.
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Alumni & Friends
Alumni & Friends
There are 128,000 University of Galway alumni worldwide. Stay connected to your alumni community! Join our social networks and update your details online.
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Community Engagement
Community Engagement
At University of Galway, we believe that the best learning takes place when you apply what you learn in a real world context. That's why many of our courses include work placements or community projects.
The Independent Living Movement
The Independent Living Movement
The independent living Movement evolved in the United States in the 1970s as a response of disabled people to their historic experience of exclusion and discrimination.
See European Coalition for Community living here and European Network on independent living (eNil) here.
In Ireland, the Department of Health Report – Towards an Independent Future published in 1996, recommended that each Health Board, in consultation with the co-ordinating committee, should examine the viability of establishing in its area small independent domestic dwellings with support, as recently established by the Irish Wheelchair Association in Galway. The report of 1996 proposed that health boards and voluntary bodies providing services to people with disabilities should liaise closely with social housing organisations and local authorities to ensure that an adequate number of accessible houses was available to people with disabilities who wished to pursue this option.
Today, in the Irish context, the philosophy of Independent Living finds expression in:
The Citizens Information Act 2007,
The Education For Persons With Special Educational Needs Act 2004 and in
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
In relation to de-institutionalisation, a movement across Europe towards community living has been examined in a recent report in relation to outcomes and costs in 28 countries. This Tizard Report points out that increasingly the goal of services for people with disabilities is seen not as the provision of a particular type of building or programme, but as the provision of a flexible range of help and resources, which can be assembled and adjusted as needed, to enable all people with disabilities to live their lives in the way that they want, but with the support and protection that they need.
In Ireland, Independent Living is advanced by the Centre for Independent Living Network Council, which includes all 25 irish Centres for Independent Living since 2005.
The report by the Disability Federation of Ireland/Citizens Information Board (DFi/CiB) in 2007 – The Right Living Space Housing and Accommodation Needs of People with Disabilities, pointed to a need for new thinking which would address the accommodation and related support needs of people with disabilities in the context of social inclusiveness, equality of access and the provision of accessible and integrated living environments. This approach would be significantly different to the approach which views the accommodation needs of people with disabilities as being met primarily in the context of “special needs housing”.