I am a student who chose National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) to study Pharmacology. I regret going to NUIG. Allow me to share my experience of this terrible University:
University is so badly maintained and poorly organized; there is no coordination and little communication between the different Departments here. The Library website is complicated for someone looking to retrieve a research journal for their studies. The University is very inefficient in general with little student services or support. The fees office rarely answer the telephone and when they do, their client manner is appalling. It took me several weeks to finally get them to follow-up my fees payment from the U.S, otherwise they hit people with a EUR200 late fee. NUIG is a horrible place for anyone looking to study in Galway.
Separately, I regret choosing Pharmacology at NUIG. The exam marking system is corrupt here. There are major disparities in the way Pharmacology Lecturers mark our scripts, with mature students apparently doing better than others. This despite the fact that several of our mature students were struggling right the way through class and not having any background in this subject. In the exam, I feel I did an extremely good paper (probably an A by American standards) but only came out with a C in the end. I kindly sought to view my script to discuss with the NUIG Pharmacology lecturers but they were very hawkish and rude towards me. I did textbook style answers in my exam encompassing all coursework. The NUIG Pharmacology syllabus is poorly organized. Some lecturers notes were actually plagiarized from the internet, and the classes were poorly planned with no depth to the syllabus whatsoever. Our continuous exam consisted of 2 big quizzes and an assignment; all dumped on us in one day during the last week of the semester.
To all of you hoping to study in National University of Ireland, Galway - Avoid the place…
It is not worth paying over EUR12,00 as an American Student. An equivalent course in the U.S has a much better standard than here.