National University of Ireland, Galway, Masters in Cancer Research
Reviewed on Oct 16, 2025(Enrolled 2021)What Students Say
Likes
- The Campus, it has lovely walking and cycling tracks
- The Laboratory infrastructures (well established Molecular Research Lab)
- The Canteen next to corrib river (It is very great place to have a pizza; something very famous of the canteen, you can enjoy stunning views of the corrib river and occasionally you may meet swans.
Dislikes
- You have to walk alot. The campus is too big when you are not in a mood for a stroll. very less means to travel quickly from one side to others.
- The Campus does not have many navigators to guide you to your destination buidling.
- Despite being approachable It can get tricky and frustrating sometimes to navigate from one administrator to the other just to get approval (for example it took me 3 member approval to enter the molecular lab).
Course Curriculum
8
- The Course was designed with a combination of Video classes and group discussion, which I feel made the course easy for most of us.
- An attention to every individual and a small group of students every year allowed the faculty to focus on everyone. The only negative is the inability to choose the subcategory of projects where you want to work; it is a negative if you especially know which aspect of cancer research you have interest in.
- Our classes were spread apart: 2 classes a day at 9am and around 3pm and three days of theory classes and the rest were reserved for laboratory practices.
- Our Program had an average of 10 members per intake and it is maintained as standard class strength in the program (an attractive feature of this program at NUIG)
- I was the only Indian student in my programme. Another US indian was there but she never lived in India.
Admission Experience
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I applied to three colleges.
- NUIG: accepted, as I spoke to professors before applying.
- University of Birmingham, UK: accepted. applied for a master's in Biomedical Sciences; I had to reject this due to high course fees and visa conditions of the UK.
- University of Aberdeen: Rejected. I applied for a master's in Biomedical Sciences and I was rejected due to late applying, as per the communication received from the admissions committee
- I chose NUIG because the course offered me a direct walking path into the cancer research field in the Irish land and would lay a foundation for my PhD in the same field.
- As far as Admissions is concerned, Before applications, I connected to Dr Eva Szegezdi; she was the program Director and she gave me a good understanding about how the curriculum will be and helped me connect with a few Indians who Graduated from the same course, from where i learned from their experiences.
- I gave IELTS only for the admission process and obtained a 7.5 Band overall. The minimum is 6 bands to be admitted to the university.
- For me the whole process was very smooth and having a childhood friend who had already completed a course from NUIG gave me a very smooth transition from India to Ireland.
- My programme had only one intake: that is, the fall intake. I took this intake to pursue my career goals of entering a PhD programme and contributing to academic molecular research.
- The Admission process took about 5 months from application to receiving acceptance and payment of fees and me travelling to the university
- I applied in March 2021; immediately after the application, I connected with the programme director. In May 2021, the initial screening of eligibility happened in which we had a short meeting/interview with the programme faculty and director and they tested my knowledge levels in the field and During June or early July, I received my acceptance email.
- The main parts of the application was
- Initial application with the application fees of 50 Euros.
- Screening Interview with the faculties.
- Sharing of all attested academic documents and other necessary documents for identity and academic verifications.
- Receiving the decisions.
Faculty
10
- We had at least 1 faculty for every 2 students. this allowed us Personal one on one meetings with our faculty, allowing us to make connections.
- The teaching methodology was lead by example and my programme involved hypothetical explanations of molecular interactions. The content for my programme was adequate or more than required to prepare for a PhD and also some parts of quality control in a biotech production company.
- I received no help from faculty to find a part-time or full-time job; I proactively went around to find part-time jobs. They however gave me details and asked me to approach them for full-time jobs but no references were shared for me.
- I admire Dr Howard Oliver Fearnhead due to his calm and jolly nature and how well he supports the grad students. He has been very gentle in solving doubts and even helped set up practical experiments for students despite when the other faculty instructed their assistance.
Campus Life
10
- Only one campus in Galway.
- The facilities include a complete gym, swimming pool, Library, Restaurant, campus student residents, and Medical building with 24/7 pharmacy and emergency services.
- I am unaware of the major festivals on campus, as during my time not many happened.
- The student organisations do meetups every quarter; there is a boat club and swimming club at the university.
- The picture attached below is the view of the Galway Cathedral from the campus restaurant and the body of water below is the corrib river
Part Time Jobs
- Almost 60% of students get TA, RA or DA positions and the pay is typically minimum wage as per the country laws.
- Pay during my time was 10.5 Euros an Hour.
- Other campus jobs involved library assistant, student Tour incharge etc the hourly wages are the same: 10.5 Euros
- As per our visa rules, we were allowed to work only 20 hours a week as part-time. and 40 hours as full-time during breaks and leave.
- Campus jobs are very few in number and on a first-come, first-served basis. It is advised to find retail store jobs, which are a lot in number and easy to get.
- 10-15 Euros an hour is a typical earning for students. Part-time jobs are a small challenge but regularly physically visiting places can increase the chance instead of applying online. There are no one-shoe-fits-all application process; some big companies accept online applications, while other local retailers prefer a physical approach with a short printed CV for application
Placement
10
- All my batchmates who did not go for a PhD landed a job immediately.
- The average starting salary is 50,000 Euros/year.
- There are multiple job portals in Ireland, for example, jobs. i.e., and students also benefit from frequent job fairs at the campus, which even an outsider can attend.
- Few of my batchmates were able to secure jobs in companies such as ONK therapeutics, Medtronic, etc., for pharmaceutical production and research roles.
- Medtronic, ONK therapeutics, Abbvie are some of the companies that hire a lot from NUIG and our programme.
Accommodation
Off Campus
6
- I searched for accommodation through the Rent.ie website and asked my childhood friend to help visit the place and pay the rent and get the keys ready for me when I arrive.
- I paid a monthly rent of 450 Euros it only included the rent and waste collection.
- I had to struggle to find owners who were willing to share their ID and Property ownership papers and make a formal agreement, as these were required for our travel immigrations during covid restrictions.
- Ideally all incoming students can go for student accommodation for initial times and physically visit sites before paying upfront, as a lot of fake people are present online.
- My accommodation was very close to the college. Biomedical science building was 1.5km away from my accommodation. Indians are distributed throughout the Galway area, not specific areas.
Exams
- My programme required only an English Competency examination; I gave the IELTS.
- Documents required for admissions were:
- SOP
- 2 letters of recommendations
- CV
- IELTS scorecards.
- I had a Interview as part of my application process; the interview was conducted by Dr Eva Szegezdi, programme director. It began with understanding my educational background and then understanding my suitability for the programme. it involved asking life science-based querys i.e. about cancer biology and my knowledge around it. The interview had a major influence, as I already had a Msc from india and good work experience and I had a very vivid discussion about how my interest in cancer research aligns well with the programme requirements.
Fees
- I paid a total of 20750 euros for one year of the course. This does not include hostel fees.
- On-campus hostels were around 700-1100 Euros depending on the room and sharing basis you opted for.
- The fees are charged as per programme; for my programme, the fees were to be paid upfront. However, my friends in biomedical have also had the chance to do Semester wise payments.
- Very conservatively, if you manage your expenses, you can do very well, easily 300-500 Euros a month and It can go to about 700-1000 euros if you want a bit of a lavish lifestyle. The rent I paid for 1 room in a 5-bedroom independent house within walkable distance from the university was 450 euros a month, plus electricity and heating oil (for house heating). I used to move around the city on a Bicycle or by walking, as everything I required was within walking distance. Groceries were about 100-200 euros with Indian food store purchases.
Scholarship
- No, I did not receive any scholarship.
- For my programme, an average of 1-2 people receive scholarships. The scholarship amount can be about 20% of fees to a full scholarship with a living stipend of 2000 Euros depending on their merit and academics
- During Covid times we were not able to go to our part-time works so we were paid 200 euros a week for being unemployed.
