First Year Experience

Dive right in to our warm, welcoming community at AIT. We know you don’t want to be just another face in the crowd, and at AIT we go out of our way to welcome and support our new students. Whether you have travelled just a few miles by bus, or whether you have opted for the excellent value accommodation available in Athlone, you’ll find your feet quickly here.

At AIT we keep our class sizes small, and ensure our students get the personal, focused attention of our top-class academic staff. Our staff have an open-door policy, and they get involved in the day-to-day life on campus; you’ll be a name, not a number in AIT. At AIT we have the highest proportion of Doctoral and Post-Doctoral teaching and research staff of any IoT in Ireland, and that’s just one reason why we’re on the advanced track towards becoming one of Ireland’s first Technological Universities.

You know what you want to achieve, and we’ll help you get there, with our excellent library, online study resources, superb science facilities and state-of-the-art Sports Science equipment or our dedicated, purpose-built Nursing Facilities. Our teaching and research facilities rival, or exceed, any other IoT in the country.

What if you still feel unsure? Every major life-change raises its own issues, and it’s to be expected that a small number of First-Year students will experience some difficulties during the transition to adult-style, self-directed learning and college living. We offer all our students a wide range of holistic supports through our dedicated teams of Student Ambassadors, counsellors, chaplains, PASS Leaders, and the very active Student Union. There’s a reason why our motto is “Connect and Progress” and why our students continually rate “community” as one of AIT’s greatest attributes.