International Student Orientation

Studying at a university overseas will undoubtedly be an exciting and challenging venture for you. In order to ease the transition into academic life in a different country, we have organised a focused and interesting orientation programme with an array of workshops and information sessions that cover everything from the legalities of living (and working part-time) in Ireland to dealing with academics and academia in an Irish institution and making the most of the student support services offered to you at DCU.

The full schedule with details of the venues may be accessed here: Orientation Schedule February 2012 (please note that this schedule will be provisional with the final version available in mid January). You should carefully identify the sessions relevant to you as follows:

All Exchange Students and Study Abroad Programme Students must attend all relevant orientation sessions on Thursday 2nd and Friday 3rd February 2012. The official Welcome Session begins on Thursday 2nd February 2012 at 10.00 am in QG15 which is located on the ground floor of the Business School. The venue will open at 9.30am and we would encourage you to arrive on time to pick up your Information Welcome Pack at the entrance and settle into your seat. Sessions begin at 10.00am sharp.

Airport Pickup Service

We are organising an airport pickup service for international students on Wednesday 1st February 2012. This pick-up service will only be available to students staying on campus or in the Shanowen Square / Hall apartment complex which borders onto the DCU campus. To avail of this service, students who have secured accommodation either on campus or at Shanowen Square / Hall must ensure that accommodation is ready for move in on that date. Students staying elsewhere on the night of 1st February and students who arrive on a different date are advised to use public transport.  The following websites may be of help when identifying public transport from the airport: Dublin Bus, aircoach. There are also plenty of taxis available at the airport and you should have enough cash with you on the day.

If you wish to avail of the airport pickup service, please send an email to international.office@dcu.ie by Friday, 20 January 2012 at the latest with the subject heading "Airport Pickup" and specify the following details:

• Full Name
• DCU Student ID
• Name of your accommodation on arrival
• Date of Arrival
• Time of Arrival
• Airline
• Flight No
• Airport from which the plane will be arriving, e.g. London Heathrow, Frankfurt, Chicago etc (if you take more than one plane you should provide the name of the airport from which your last plane will leave before landing in Dublin).

Please note that Dublin airport now has two terminals.  We will be checking terminal details in preparation for the pickup and you do not need to worry about this particular detail just yet.

Once we hear from you, we will add you to our arrivals list and meet you at the airport on that day between the hours of approximately 6:00 am and 8:00 pm. We will contact everyone wishing to avail of the service again after 20 January with more details.