Dear Editor,

In E&L, January 30th, you published a letter in which a Belfast student claims that he/she was told that degrees from Portobello College are more widely recognised than similar degrees from TCD and UCD.

I would hereby deeply regret if such a claim were made unofficially and unwittingly by anybody at Portobello College.

Trinity College, Dublin and University College, Dublin are both long established, illustrious centres of learning. For a young private third level college, however successful it may be, and however rapidly it may be growing, to claim it to be more widely recognised than TCD or UCD, would be presumptuous indeed. We at Portobello make no such claim.

To clarify the situation for your readers and for Belfast student in particular, I wish to state clearly what Portobello College does offer: it offers business degrees from the University of Glamorgan, Wales; it offers law degrees (Irish Law) from Cardiff Law School, University of Wales; it offers higher national diploma (BTEC) courses; it offers certificate and diploma courses from the NCEA (all these certificates, diplomas and degrees have indeed wide recognition); it offers excellent tuition by an outstanding team of committed lecturers in a pleasant learning environment with the most modern computers and other facilities in up to date educational premises.

I trust that this clarifies further the situation with regard to the academic qualifications available at Portobello College.

Yours,

President,

Portobello College,

Dublin.