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An Coláiste Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath
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Image:UCD Dublinpng
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Ad Astra - Comhthrom Féinne<br>(to the stars - fair play)
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1854
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Dublin , Republic Of Ireland
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606 (faculty)<br>14,500 (undergraduates)<br>5,500 (postgraduates)
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President
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Prof Hugh Brady
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Registrar
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Dr Philip Nolan
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Belfield<br>Dublin 4
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+353-1-716 7777
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http://wwwucdie
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AMBA , EUA , NUI , IUA
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- more commonly '''University College Dublin''' ('''UCD''') - is
Ireland's largest
University , with over 20,000 students. It is located in
Dublin , capital of Ireland.
The university is a ''constituent university'' of the
National University Of Ireland . The terms of the Universities Act, 1997 were used to rename the university after resolution by the Senate of the National University of Ireland.
The university can trace its history to 1854 as the
Catholic University Of Ireland , the modern university received its charter in 1908.
See Also: Catholic University of Ireland
In the years following the Catholic Emancipation in Ireland a movement led by
Paul Cullen attempted to make higher-level education accessible to Irish Catholics for the first time (at this time the Anglican Trinity College still imposed religious test that effectively banned Catholics from attending). As a result of these efforts a new Catholic University of Ireland was opened in 1854 and
John Henry Newman was appointed as its first rector. Initially only seventeen students enrolled the first of these being the grandson of
Daniel O’Connell .
As a private university the Catholic University was never given a royal charter, and so was unable to award recognized degrees and suffered from chronic financial difficulties. Newman left the university in 1857 and it subsequently went into a serious decline. This trend was reversed 1880 with the establishment of the Royal University of Ireland. The Royal Universities charter entitled all Irish students to sit the Universities examinations and receive its degrees. Although in many respects the Catholic University can be viewed as a failure, the future University College inherited substantial assets from it including a successful medical school and two beautiful buildings, Newman House on St Stephen's Green and the adjoining University Church.
In order to avail of the benefits of the Royal University the Catholic University was renamed University College Dublin. The college rapidly attracted many of the best students and academics in Ireland including
Gerard Manley Hopkins and
James Joyce and quickly began to out perform the other three colleges in the Royal University system. In the fifteen years before the establishment of the National University the number of first class distinctions in Arts awarded by the Royal University to University College was 702 compared with a total of 486 awarded to the combined Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Galway and Cork. Many of the college’s staff and students during this period would later contribute substantially to the formation and development of the future Irish state, the most famous being
Francis Skeffington ,
Pádraig Pearse ,
Hugh Kennedy ,
Eamon De Valera ,
Eoin MacNeill ,
Kevin O’Higgins ,
Tom Kettle ,
James Ryan ,
Douglas Hyde and
John A. Costello .
In 1908, the Royal University was dissolved and a new
National University Of Ireland replaced it. This new University came into existence with three constitutent University Colleges - Dublin, Galway and Cork. By this time the college campus consisted of a number of locations in and around St Stephens Green in Dublins city centre, the main sites being Earlsfort Terrace, Cecilia Street, College of Science Merrion Street, and Newman House on St Stephen's Green.
In 1913 in response to the formation of the Ulster Volunteer Force (viewed as a threat to the Home Rule movement)
Eoin MacNeill professor of early Irish history called for the formation of an Irish nationalist force to counter act it. The
Irish Volunteers were formed later that year and MacNeil was elected its Chief-of-staff. At the outbreak of the
First World War in view of the
Home Rule Act 1914 the majority of the volunteers including many UCD staff and students opted to support the British war effort. Many of those who opposed this move later participated in the
Easter Rising , in this way UCD was a reflection of the Irish nationalist community generally with a number of staff and students participating in the rising while others fought (and died in the case of professor of national economics
Tom Kettle ) for the British army in France. Those participating in the rising include
Patrick Pearse ,
Thomas MacDonagh ,
Michael Hayes and
James Ryan .
Many UCD staff, students and alumni fought in the Irish War of Independence that followed the rising. Following the signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty four UCD graduates joined the government of the new Irish Free State. The universities graduates have since had a large impact on Irish political life, four of the eight Presidents of Ireland and six of the ten Irish Taoiseach have been either former staff or graduates.
By the early 1940’s the College had become the largest third level institution in the state. In an effort to cope with the increased numbers unsuccessful attempts were made to expand the existing city centre campus. It was finally decided that the best solution would be to move the College to a much larger green fields site outside of the city centre and create a modern
Campus University . This move commenced in the early 1960’s when the faculty of science moved to the new 350 acre (1.4 km²) park campus at ''
Belfield '' in a suburb on the south side of Dublin. The Belfield campus has since developed into an attractively landscaped complex of modern architectural buildings and inherited Georgian townhouses, accommodating most of the colleges of the University as well as its student residences and numerous leisure and sporting facilities. One of UCDs previous locations, the ''Royal College of Science'' in Merrion Street is now the location of the renovated
Irish Government Buildings, where the office of the
Taoiseach (prime minister) is located. University College, Dublin also had a site in
Glasnevin for much of the last century, the
Albert Agricultural College , which is now part of
Dublin City University .
Under the Universities Act, 1997, University College Dublin was established as a constituent university within the National University of Ireland framework.
The new
Logo of the university which incorporates the words ''UCD Dublin'', has been the subject of some controversy since its introduction in August 2005 at a cost of €30,000. The main bone of contention seems to be the name, thus creating the confusing, ''University College Dublin, Dublin'' and also creating the false impression of a name change. It appears the inclusion slipped passed all levels during the decision process and has been compared to other such acronym-related mishaps as ATM machine or PIN number, often referred to as
RAS Syndrome .
During 2005 UCD underwent substantial restructuring. The university now consists of five colleges, their associated schools (35 in total) and eleven research institutes and centres. Each college also has their own
Graduate School , for postgraduates.
The new colleges and schools are:
:School of Art History & Cultural Policy
:School of Classics
:School of English & Drama
:School of History & Archives
:School of Irish, Celtic Studies, Irish Folklore & Linguistics
:School of Languages, Literatures & Film
:School of Music
:School of Law
:School of Chemical & Bioprocess Engineering
:School of Computer Science & Informatics
:School of Electrical, Electronic & Mechanical Engineering
:School of Geological Sciences
:School of Mathematical Sciences
:School of Physics
:School of Economics
:School of Education & Lifelong Learning
:School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Policy
:School of Information & Library Studies
:School of Philosophy
:School of Politics & International Relations
:School of Psychology
:School of Social Justice
:School of Sociology
:School of Biology & Environmental Science
:School of Biomolecular & Biomedical Science
:School of Chemistry & Chemical Biology
:School of Medicine & Medical Science
:School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health Systems
:School of Physiotherapy & Performance Science
:School of Public Health & Population Science
At the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year, UCD introduced the ''Horizons''
{Link without Title} programme, which completely semesterised and modularised all undergraduate courses for incoming first years. Previously, new students chose from a specific set of subjects in their individual programme courses. Under the Horizons programme, new undergraduate students have greater choice in what exactly they study in their programme. Under the new programme students choose ten modules from their specific subject area and two other modules, which can be choosen from any other course programme across the entire university system. For example, a student studying first year business as their primary degree programme can also choose one module (or two) from the first year law programme (subject to space available and timetable constraints, etc.). While the university authorities believe that Horizons and modularisation are the way forward for UCD, many students have raised their voices in criticism of the new system. In particular, continuing undergraduate students have called for more time and consultation into the feasibility of complete modularisation (of all years) which is scheduled to take place by 2006 or 2007.
UCD is highly regarded internationally with many of its graduates going on to post-graduate studies at other top international universities, particularly in the United States and Britain. Among its most accomplished alumni are the writers ,
Dr. Garret Fitzgerald and
Charles Haughey . The current taoiseach,
Bertie Ahern , attended UCD as a student but did not graduate.
The University is a leading research centre within Ireland, many of its schools are the largest and most productive of their type in the country. There are currently over five thousand postgraduate students engaged in postgraduate study and research within UCDs five graduate schools, more than in any other university in Ireland. Amongst the research institutes of the university are:
The most prominent university-related company is the
IE Domain Registry ; many of the university's academics continue to sit on the board of directors. The university originally gained control of the
.ie domain in the late
1980s .
There are a number of related companies, many concentrated as the
NovaUCD initiative, to commercialise research results and opportunities; many of these reflect the university's expertise in the chemistry research. Enzolve is an
Enzyme and
Protein commercialisation group; ''Ildana Biotech'' is a joint group with
Dublin City University .
Berand concentrates on the development of new chemicals for disease treatment.
The
Students' Union UCDSU in the college has been an active part of campaigns run by the National Union,
USI , and has played a highly significant role in the life of the college since its foundation in 1974.
The Union has also taken significant stances on issues of human rights that have hit the headlines in Ireland and around the world, particularly in becoming the first institution in the world to implement a boycott of
Coca-Cola products on the basis of alleged human and trade union rights abuses in
Colombia .
All full and part time undergraduate and postgraduate students of UCD are members of the Students' Union.
Its main Governing Body is the Union Council which meets every 2 weeks during term. Council membership consists of the Five Sabbatical officers the executive officers and class representatives elected by union members in their respective constituencies. The five sabbatical officers are involved in the day to day running of the union. Their term commences in the month of July after the election and lasts for 12 months. Sabbatical Elections take place in February of each year. Sabbatical officers are usually students who have completed their degree course or have taken a year out.
The university has two student papers, the ''University Observer'' and the ''College Tribune''. The ''Observer'', publishing in broadsheet format, is funded by the UCD Students Union, but its content remains editorially independent, bar one 'Union Page' per issue. The ''Tribune'' which is published as a tabloid format newspaper, is supported by commercial advertising in the paper. Both papers are usually published on a fortnightly basis throughout the academic year.
UCD also has a student radio station, ''Belfield FM'', broadcasting at selected times throughout the academic year across the campus on 97.3FM and online at the station's website
{Link without Title} .
At the beginning of the academic year 2005-2006, the creation of a student television station, titled ''Campus Television News'' (CTN) was announced. However, CTN has (as of April 2006) not yet started broadcasting.
