A NEW scholarship that will fund a ‘bold initiative’ has been announced by the University of Limerick and software company MongoDB.

The scholarship, funded by MongoDB, will promote equality, diversity and inclusion in software engineering for students in UL’s innovative Immersive Software Engineering (ISE) programme.

ISE is a teaching and research initiative that aims to “rethink and disrupt” computer science education. Students learn by doing, working on projects, and in paid residencies at some of ISE’s more than fifty of their partner organisations. 

They will also achieve a Master’s qualification in four years.

The scholarship of €10,000 will assist recipients with tuition fees, books and other educational expenses. It will specifically support diversity within the ISE programme across each of the diversity characteristics set out in the Equal Status Act.

Professor Stephen Kinsella, ISE Co-Director and Head of the Department of Economics at the Kemmy Business School in UL, said that immersive Software Engineering is about doing software engineering differently. 

“That means many things, and core to the basic idea of ISE is needing different people, from different backgrounds, who think differently, to work and learn together in a shared space to help create the future. The scholarship also aligns with UL’s overarching Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy, in that it promotes equality of access to higher education,” he added.