University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin - more commonly University College Dublin (UCD) - is the Republic of 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 university can trace its history to 1854 as the Catholic University of Ireland, the modern university received its charter in 1908.

The 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 a 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 in 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.

Foundation of University College Dublin

Government buildings, Dublin. The former location of the UCD science faculty

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 constituent 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.

UCD and the formation of the Irish Free State

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 counteract 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 opted to support the British war effort, including many UCD staff and students. 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, with others fighting (and dying 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. It is notable that the Irish houses of parliament were located in UCD's Earlsfort Terrace campus from 1919 to 1922, when they moved to their current location in Leinster House. The university's graduates have since had a large impact on Irish political life - four of the eight Presidents of Ireland and five of the ten Irish Taoiseach have been either former staff or graduates. Of the fifteen current members of the Irish cabinet, nine are former UCD students.

Move to Belfield

The O'Reilly Hall, UCD

By the early 1940s 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 started in the early 1960s 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 a complex of modern buildings and inherited Georgian town houses, accommodating most of the colleges of the University as well as its student residences and numerous leisure and sporting facilities. One of UCD's 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.

Recent developments

This version of the coat of arms introduced in 1911 was reinstated as the official logo for parchments of the university in 2005

A 1940s coat of arms was replaced with an updated iconic version of the original. Rationale for this redesign stemmed from the need to raise international recognition for the university and the desire to eliminate over seventy separately designed logos for centres and units within the university.

In April 2006, the University announced an ambitious building and redevelopment plan of its Belfield campus. The new developments include the redevelopment and expansion of the Newman Building, the James Joyce Library, the Science Complex (which will be transformed at a cost of €300 million) and an extension to the Student Centre (including a new swimming pool, debating chamber and theatre). In addition a new Gateway centre will be built at the north end and main entrance to the Belfield campus that will include a welcome centre, an art house cinema, an exhibition centre, hotel and conference facilities, office space for campus companies, some retail space and new student residences (with space for an extra 3000 students). The whole plan is currently budgeted at a cost of over €800 million.

In May 2006 it was announced that Universitas 21 accepted the university as a member [1].

In September 2006 the university was named the "Sunday Times Irish University of the Year 2006-2007" [2].

Academic

Colleges and schools

During 2005 UCD underwent substantial restructuring. The University now consists of five colleges, their associated schools (35 in total) and eighteen research institutes and centres. Each college also has their own Graduate School, for postgraduates, among the most prominent is Smurfit School of Business.

The new colleges and schools are:

• College of Arts & Celtic Studies

School of Archaeology 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

• College of Business & Law

School of Business School of Law

• College of Engineering, Mathematical & Physical Sciences

School of Architecture, Landscape & Civil Engineering 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

• College of Human Sciences

School of Applied Social Science 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

• College of Life Sciences

School of Agriculture, Food Science & Veterinary Medicine 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

UCD Horizons

'Noah's egg' outside the Veterinary School

At the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year, UCD introduced the Horizons [3] curriculum, which completely semesterised and modularised all undergraduate programmes for incoming first years. Previously, new students chose from a specific set of subjects in their individual programmes. Under the Horizons curriculum, new undergraduate students have greater choice in what exactly they study in their programme. Under the new curriculum, students choose ten modules from their specific subject area and two other modules, which can be chosen from any other programme across the entire University (this applies in the majority of programmes, however some exceptions, as in Arts Omnibus and Business & Law, can apply). For example, a student studying Stage 1 Commerce as their primary degree programme can also choose one module (or two) from the Stage 1 Law programme (subject to space availablity, timetable constraints and so on). The most popular modules chosen outside core degree areas are: psychology, applied languages, business management and computer science. In 2006 53% of first year students choose modules outside their core areas and 47% from within their core degree.

The program has been plagued with problems and setbacks from the beginning of September 2006 with many students finding their courses either canceled entirely or reorganized in such a way as to change their qualification entirely.

Reputation and Alumni

UCD was named "Sunday Times Irish University of the Year" for 2006^[1]. UCD's graduate business school is consistently the top ranked business school in Ireland, the most recent Economist Intelligence Unit's ranking of the world's top MBA programmes placing UCD 38th in the world.^[2] Among its most accomplished alumni and faculty are four of the eight former presidents of Ireland and five of the ten former taoisigh (Irish prime ministers). Examples of other well known UCD alumni include writers (e.g. James Joyce, Flann O'Brien and Roddy Doyle), actors (e.g. Dermot Morgan, Gabriel Byrne and Brendan Gleeson), film directors (e.g. Neil Jordan and Jim Sheridan), businessmen (e.g. Tony O'Reilly and Denis O'Brien), sportspeople (e.g. Brian O'Driscoll and Michelle Smith) and politicians (e.g. V V Giri and Eoin MacNeill). For a more complete list of famous UCD people see here.

Research and innovation

The Conway Institute, University College Dublin.

The University is a leading research centre within Ireland with a research income of €90.1million during 2004/5. UCDs research community of approximately one thousand faculty members, one thousand post doctoral researchers and two thousand PhD students work in the various schools and research institutes of the University. Amongst the research institutes of the university are:

• Adaptive Information Cluster (a collaboration with Dublin City University).
• Centre for Research in Infectious Diseases
• Centre for Synthesis and Chemical Biology
• Clinton Institute for American Studies
• UCD Centre for Chinese Studies
• Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research
• Centre for Development studies
• Centre for Disability Studies
• Centre for Drama Studies
• Centre for Innovation and Structural Change (a collaboration with Dublin City University and the National University of Ireland, Galway).
• Centre for the History of the Media
• Dublin European Institute
• Equality Studies Centre
• Geary Institute (Research for the Social Sciences)
• Global Irish Institute
• Humanities Institute of Ireland
• Institute for British-Irish Studies
• Institute of Criminology
• Irish Centre for Commercial Law Studies
• Mícheál Ó Cléirigh Institute (Irish History & Civilisation)
• National Digital Research Centre (a collaboration with Dublin City University and Trinity College, Dublin).
• National Institute for Bioprocessing Research and Training (a collaboration with Dublin City University, Trinity College, Dublin and Sligo IT).
• National Institute of Sport and Health
• Urban Institute of Ireland
• O'Kane Centre For Film Studies

Wide partnerships in which the university is involved include:

The Programme for Research on Grid-enabled Computational Physics of Natural Phenomena which is a collaboration with DCU, TCD, UCC DIAS, NUI Galway, HEAnet, Met Éireann, Armagh Observatory and Grid Ireland.

The university also collaborates with the Centre for Telecommunications Value-Chain-Driven Research (CTVR) which is a collaboration with DCU, TCD, NUI Maynooth the Tyndall Institute, UCC, UL, DIT and Sligo IT.

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.

Front entrance, NovaUCD

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 life sciences and information technology. These companies include:

• Analytical Drug and Data (ADD) (specialising in brain research)
• Berand (concentrating on the development of new chemicals for disease treatment)
• BiancaMed (health technology solutions for everyday living)
• Broadcast Learning
• Businesscale
• Celtic Catalysts (involved in chiral chemistry research)
• ChangingWorlds (develops multi-access, intelligent portal platforms for mobile operators)
• Cornerstone Knowledge International
• Crovan
• Cytrea (a chemistry group that specialises in cyclodextrin formulations for pharmaceuticals)
• Duolog Technologies
• (e)Learning Union
• Enzolve (an enzyme and protein commercialisation group)
• Eventznet
• gsmExchange
• Intelligent Health Systems
• Ildana Biotech is a joint group with Dublin City University.
• Java Clinical Research
• Lightwave Technologies
• Locumotion
• AllaVoca
• Neosera
• Novus (financial services management and consultancy company)
• Spectral Signatures
• Visor Consulting

Student life

Students' union

Glenomena student residences, University College Dublin.

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 ban of Coca-Cola products in Student Union controlled shops on the basis of alleged human and trade union rights abuses in Colombia, however Coca-Cola products are now on sale in vending machines right outside the doors of these shops, and sales have not dropped.

All full and part time undergraduate and postgraduate students of UCD are members of the Students' Union, whhether they want to be or not, and are charged a flat fee for this involuntary membership, which all students must pay, regardless of their financial circumstances. Even when a student is deemed by the government to be on a low enough income to not pay the college "registration fee", they must still pay the Student Union fee, which increaces every year, if a student refuses to pay this, they are not permitted to proceed to the next year.

The Union's main Governing Body is the Union Council which meets every 2 weeks during term. Council membership consists of 180+ seats for Class Representatives, ten directly elected officers of the Union Executive and five Executive officers elected by Union Council at its first meeting each year. Five officers of the Union Executive are sabbatical officers and are involved in the day to day running of the union. Their term commences on the 1st of July in the year of their election and lasts for 12 months. Sabbatical elections take place in late February of each year. Sabbatical officers are usually students who are in the second year of their degree who have decided to take a year out. To date, students from Arts, Social Science and Law have predominated in holding sabbatical positions.

Societies

There are currently over one hundred student societies in the university. They cater for many interests ranging from party societies such as the Commerce and Economics Society [4] ,Qsoc,, B&L and RetroSoc to religious groups such as the Christian Union and the Islamic Society, academic-oriented societies like the Classical Society, Filmsoc and everything in between. All the major political parties are represented on campus such as Ógra Fianna Fáil (Kevin Barry Cumann[5]), Young Fine Gael (University College Dublin YFG[6]) and Ogra Shinn Fein (An Cumann McDonagh - Farrell]. Other smaller political parties are also active, including The Socialist Party, The Socialist Workers Party, The Green Party, The Progressive Democrats and UCD Labour Youth [http://www.labour.ie/youth/oncampus/index/200309......0909085645.html.

The largest society on campus is the Commerce and Economics Society (C&E) [7] which has 4,100 members in the academic year 2006/2007 making it not only UCD's but also Ireland's largest student society. The society has also been named as Irelands largest student business society for the 5th year in a row and is entering its 94th session in 06/07. The C&E runs numerous social events throughout the year including the "Iron Stomach", "Back to da Wezz", "Rappers and Slappers", "Cherry Ball" and "Beach Ball". The C&E also organise a black tie event, the "CommBall".

The second largest society on campus is the Law Society [8] which has 3,600 members in the academic year 2006/07 and is entering its 96th session in 2006/07. Debates take place every Tuesday evening with comedy debates occurring at lunchtime. The Law Society debates attract many famous names as guest speakers. The highlight of the Law Society social calendar is the Law Ball, a black tie event. The society also organises debating competitions among students, social events, '80s Day' which is a day of activities in the theme of the 1980s, and a moot court competition. The winners of the moot court competition go on to compete in a moot court against the winners in Trinity College, Dublin. Past Auditors of the Law Society have included Michael McDowell and Arthur Cox.

The oldest society in UCD is the Literary and Historical Society (L&H) which was founded in 1854 (making it one of the oldest student societies in the world) under the guidance of John Henry Newman. It is one of the biggest debating societies in Ireland and holds two debates weekly during term time. It has been named the National Society of the Year on several occasions, most recently in 2005 a year in which it hosted the World Universities Debating Championship in conjunction with the Law Society.

Sport

UCD has very strong sporting traditions and a very successful competitive record in a great range of sports. The most successful clubs during 2005/2006 were the Senior Hurling team (winners of the Dublin County Championship), the Senior Hockey team (winners of the Leinster Senior Cup), the Senior Basketball team (University Championship winners), the Ladies Volleyball team (which won the University Championships and the English Student Cup), the Under-20 Rugby team (which won a league and cup double), the Soccer teams (winning a variety of cups and leagues) and the Senior Mens Cricket Team (Varsity Plate Winners).

The Belfield campus is home to some of the best sports facilities in Ireland. These include the national hockey stadium (which has previously hosted the Women's Hockey World Cup Finals and the Men's Hockey European Championship Finals), a full size athletics track, two other stadia (one for rugby and one for soccer), one of the largest fitness centres in the country, squash courts, tennis courts, an indoor rifle range, over twenty sports pitches (for rugby, soccer and gaelic games), an indoor climbing wall and two large sports halls. It is hoped that a swimming pool will be added before 2010. There are currently over fifty sports clubs in UCD. These cater for archery to windsurfing and just about everything in between. Probably the three largest and most successful clubs are the soccer club (currently the only university team to compete in the top division of the national league in Western Europe), the rugby club (currently playing in the AIB League division 1) and the Gaelic Sports club.

The University will host the IFIUS World Interuniversity Games in October 2006.

Student publications and media

Student Centre, UCD

The university has two student papers, the broadsheet The University Observer and the tabloid College Tribune. Both papers are usually published on a fortnightly basis throughout the academic year.

The University Observer won the Newspaper of the Year award at the National Student Media Awards in April 2006, an accolade it has achieveqd more than any other student newspaper in Ireland. Founded in 1994, its first editors were Pat Leahy and comedian Dara Ó Briain. Many figures in Irish journalism have held the position of editor including The Irish Times deputy news editor Roddy O'Sullivan, The Sunday Business Post political correspondent Pat Leahy, AFP business reporter Enda Curran, Sunday Independent journalist Daniel McConnell, RTÉ News reporter Samantha Libreri and TV researcher Alan Torney. The efforts of its staff were noted by the prestigious Guardian Student Media Awards with a nomination for "Best Newspaper", the first Irish student publication to receive such recognition. In 2001, in addition to several Irish National Student Media Awards, the University Observer took the runner up prize for "Best Publication" at the Guardian Student Media Awards in London. To date, the University Observer has won no fewer than 24 Irish Student Media Awards.

The main sections within the paper are: campus, national and international news, comment, opinion and sport. In addition, each edition includes a pullout lifestyle supplement called O2, with music interviews, travel, fashion and colour pieces. The University Observer is funded by the UCD Students' Union, but its content remains editorially independent, barring one 'Union Page' per issue.

The College Tribune was founded in 1988 with the assistance of noted political commentator Vincent Browne, then an evening student in the college, who noted the lack of an independent media outlet for students and the college in general. Financially, it is supported by commercial advertising in the paper and is completely independent of college and union authorities. Former editors include Conor Lally, Crime Correspondent of the Irish Times, The Sunday Times journalist Richard Oakley, Sunday Tribune reporter Eoghan Rice, Paul Lynch, also of the Sunday Tribune, Irish Independent soccer correspondent Daniel McDonnell, and brothers Gary and Fergus O'Shea, both now in the Irish Sun, who were editors in 1996-97 and 2001-02 respectively.

Other past contributors include Dave Kelly, now rugby correspondent with the Irish Independent and Katherine Smyth now an Associate Producer with BBC Current Affairs. The College Tribune was tied to the national Sunday Tribune through its connections with Vincent Browne, but such links ended in 1999. The Tribune has also been distinguished on several occasions at national student media awards, particularly in sportswriting, where it has a strong tradition. The paper won the Student Newspaper of the Year at the USI/Irish Independent media awards in 1996. The then editor, Conor Lally, won Student Journalist of the Year in 1996. Tribune stalwart Peter Lahiff was a recipient of a Guardian Award for Diversity in 2003, the only Irish-based recipient of any Guardian award to date.

College Tribune sections include news, features, opinion, music, film, sport and colour writing, and it is famous for the launch of the satirical page The Evil Gerald, a 'paper within a paper'. The Gerald was succeeded by The Turbine in 2003, and they have featured such satirical stories as the Provisional IRA dropping its pursuit of a United Ireland in favour of occupation of the Isle of Man, and Osama Bin Laden stealing the Magic Door from Bosco which allowed him access to anywhere in the world.

UCD also has a student radio station, Belfield FM, broadcasting at selected times throughout the academic year across the campus on 101.3 FM and online at the station's website. The station is funded by the students union and has nurtured current RTE presenters Ryan Tubridy and Rick O'Shea

At the beginning of the academic year 2005-2006, the creation of a student television station, titled Campus Television Network (CTN) was announced. C.T.N. began broadcasting in November 2006 online, at it's website, and across the campus in the student bars and student centre. It currently shows a wide variety of shows from their entertainments show 'Ent...This!' to their fashion shows 'Nu Look' and 'Slick'. CTN can be viewed at www.ucd.ie/campustv

Presidents of UCD

• Dr Denis Coffey, Dean of Medicine (1910 - 1940)
• Dr Arthur W. Conway, (1940 - 1947)
• Dr Michael Tierney (1947 - 1964)
• Dr Jerimiah Hogan, (1964 - 1972)
• Dr Thomas Murphy, (1972 - 1985)
• Dr Patrick Masterson, (1986 - 1993)
• Dr Art Cosgrove, (1994 - 2003)
• Dr Hugh R. Brady, (2004 - )

UCD rocks~~~