Horticulture foundation degrees

Good, high quality level of teaching. Lecturers have an abundance of experience in a range of roles in the wine industry. Lots of contacts of people in the trade. Student life on campus is quite detached from anything - if you don't have a car there is not a lot you can do.

The campus is quite far from where I live, and if I stay for events, I come home at a later times and my area is unsafe, so I don’t really go to university events anymore. Though I do enjoy the buildings of the campus and the facilities.

I study on Loughry Campus, Cookstown. It is not located in a city and is a rural location, which I understand may put some people off. But the education programme here is second to none. Staff offer all the support you need and more, and as they are industry expects. The ability to network, liaise with industry professionals, gain experience and learn for working life via practical means allows for almost 100% of Loughry students to be employed by the time they finish final year. The rural position of the college isn’t something to see as negative, as the student council organise events, bus trips and lifts to all the bars, clubs, party nights happening all over the country. There is something to get involved in weekly. If you see something you’d like to attend, they are usually more than happy to organise a trip there! Everyone’s so friendly. In terms of facilities, Loughry has everything a food technology student needs, whether on a science lab front for food micro or chemical analysis to actual state of the art food production facilities. Loughry is a DAERA site also, so industry professionals are on campus regularly, trying out new recipe formulations where students and staff participate in taste panels to gauge the acceptability of new products to the market. If not trailing recipes, professions come to Loughry to seek advice on food production, new product development, packaging and marketing. Again, all the lecturers at Loughry are industry professionals so you feel like everything you learn is completely relevant, and again, it’s great for networking. I’ve loved my time at Loughry, and I may be biased but I can honestly say from my experience that I have been well and truly set up for a career in the food industry. I graduate in June 2022 and have already secured a full time job in the industry.