The 2014-15 academic year marks the third year in a row that UK has awarded iPads to recipients of two prestigious scholarships.

Students who earn the Patterson or the Singletary scholarships receive a free iPad along with room and board, undergraduate tuition, stipend and a one-time $2,000 summer abroad stipend.

“2012-2013 was the first academic year we did that,” said planning and financial operations director JoLynn Noe.  “It’s part of the scholarship package we give to our top scholarship recipients.”

This year, 150 iPads were given to scholarship recipients, which is in line with what is usually dispersed.

“It’s pretty consistent,” said Noe, who said that the university spends about $90,000 per year rewarding students with iPads, and that the money comes from institutional scholarship funds.  The iPads are intended to aid the students in their quest for a higher education.

“We expect them to use them on their course work,” said Noe, who also said that students are free to use the iPads for personal and social purposes as well.  “They’re not restricted to how they use it.”

Noe said there is not really a circumstance in which the university would recall an iPad from a scholarship recipient.  For example, if a recipient were to drop out of UK, the iPad would still be theirs to keep.

“We wouldn’t pull that back,” said Noe.

Scholarships recipients are not the only students given iPads from UK.  The advanced technology based program Wired, which entered its fourth year on campus this semester, heavily employs iPads in their courses.

“The way that we learn is fundamentally different from the way it was 10, 15 years ago,” said Wired co-director and psychology professor Nathan Dewall.  “People have more access to information and knowledge than they ever have.”

Wired courses include a variety of topics, like relationships and food, and are taught by a variety of professors.  Dewall said the iPads are crucial to the students’ presentations, articles, essays and projects.

“Everything we’ve done in class has taken place on the iPad,” said Dewall.  iPads are provided to students taking the course.  Upon completion of the course, students get to keep the iPads for educational and recreational purposes.