The level eight course in agriculture in Letterkenny Institute of Technology (LyIT) may be in its infancy, but already the course is providing significant opportunity for those in the northwest regions to study agricultural science.

With 13 level eight agricultural-based courses across Ireland, this course is one of the only ones in the northwest area. It is therefore giving students in the region a chance to study here. However, while students from Donegal and neighbouring counties are prevalent in terms of representation in the programme, the geographical spread of students is impressive at this early stage.

“So far, we are very impressed with the spread of students in terms of where they are from. We have students from Galway, Roscommon, Monaghan, Cavan, Sligo and we have had enquiries from as far away as Wicklow and Wexford.”

Gerard McDaid is a lecturer in agriculture in LyIT and one of the personnel who developed the level 8 programme. He, along with others from LyIT, began this development in June 2016 and after a 15-month process, oversaw its introduction in September 2017.

“The course began as a one-year add-on from our level 7 course in September 2017 and last September was the first intake of first years,” he explained.

Similar to other courses, students will have work placement. In LyIT, this placement takes place in semester two of second year. Placement lasts 12 weeks and is broken up into farm placement and working in a business.

In third year, students can choose either to study environmental management or animal and crop science. The points for the course, as of January 2019 are 301. The points for the level seven are 204.