Established in 1845 as Queen's College Galway, NUI Galway is one of Ireland's foremost centres of academic excellence. With over 15,000 students, it has a long established reputation of teaching and research excellence in each of its seven faculties - Arts, Science, Commerce, Engineering, Celtic Studies, Medicine & Health Sciences, and Law.

NUI Galway offers a wide range of part-time programmes for adult learners, covering many different subject areas. Many of our courses offer you an opportunity for professional development while enrolment on other courses is motivated more by personal interest and a desire for self-development. Whatever your motivation, participation in an adult education programme builds your confidence as a learner and updates your knowledge and skills within your chosen area.

Our programmes cover subject areas such as English Literature, Archaeology, Irish Studies, Business Studies and Management, Information Technology, Technology Management, Social Care, Languages, Community Development and Science. Many of these programmes lead to a recognised NUI award, a Certificate, a Diploma or a Degree. Certificate programmes usually last 1 year. A Diploma programme usually lasts 2 years while a Degree programme can take 4 years.

We also run a series of short liberal education courses extending across a wide range of disciplines, which do not lead to an award. These short courses consist of 8-10 weeks of lectures in areas such as Philosophy, Creative Writing, Film Studies, History, English Literature and many others. Check out the directory for a full list of programmes to see whether we have a programme that interests you.