University
College Dublin
University College Dublin (UCD), An Coláiste
Ollscoile, Baile Átha Cliath - formally known as University College Dublin -
National University of Ireland, Dublin is Ireland's largest university,
with over 1,300 faculty and 17,000 students.
It is located in Dublin,
capital of Ireland.
Descended from the body founded in 1854 as the Catholic University of Ireland
with John Henry Newman as the first rector,
re-formed in 1880 and chartered in its own right in 1908, today the university
is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland.
The Universities Act, 1997 renamed the university as National
University of Ireland, Dublin, and a Ministerial Order of 1998 renamed the
university as University College Dublin - National University of Ireland,
Dublin.[2]
Originally located in Dublin city centre, most of
the university's faculties have since been relocated to a 148 hectares (365
acre) park campus at Belfield, four kilometres to the south of the
centre of Dublin city.
History
The university can trace its history to the
institution founded in 1854 as the Catholic University of Ireland,
was established as UCD in 1880 under the auspices of the Royal University, and
received its charter in 1908.
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 taught by fellow-Catholics for the
first time. The Anglican Trinity College Dublin still imposed a
religious test, though Catholics had studied there since the 1780s. 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 (Cecilia
Street) and two beautiful buildings, Newman House on St Stephen's Green and the
adjoining University Church.
Foundation of University College, Dublin
In order to avail of the benefits of the Royal University of Ireland arrangement,
the Catholic University was re-formed as 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 outperform 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[citation needed], 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
founded to replace it. This new University was brought 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 Irish War of Independence
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 MacNeill 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 in general, with several staff and students participating
in the rising, such as Patrick Pearse, Thomas
MacDonagh, Michael Hayes and James Ryan, and a smaller number,
including Tom Kettle
and Willie
Redmond, fighting for the British in World War I
during the same period.
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 Dáil Éireann
(Irish Parliament) was 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
six of the eleven Irish Taoisigh have been either former staff or graduates. Of the
fifteen current members of the Irish cabinet, nine are former UCD students.
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 greenfield 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 1.4 square
kilometres (350 acres) 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, the southern
part of is now where Dublin City University is, the northern
part is where Ballymun
town is located.[3]
Under the Universities Act, 1997, University
College Dublin was established as a constituent university within the National
University of Ireland framework.
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 3,000 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.[4]
The University consists of five colleges, their
associated schools (35 in total) and eighteen research institutes and centres.
Each college also has its own Graduate
School, for postgraduates. Among the most prominent is the triple
accredited Smurfit School of Business
and the noted School of Electrical, Electronic and Mechanical Engineering.
At the beginning of the 2005/2006 academic year,
UCD introduced the Horizons curriculum,[10] 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 his primary degree programme can also choose one module (or
two) from the Stage 1 Law programme (subject to space availability, timetable
constraints and so on).
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.
All full and part time undergraduate and
postgraduate students of UCD are members of the Students' Union, whether 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 increases 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 two 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 1 July in the year of their election and lasts for twelve 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.
There are currently over fifty student
societies in the university. They cater for many interests ranging
from large-scale party societies such as Ag Soc, Arts Soc,
Commerce and Economics Society
,Qsoc,,
and B&L,.
There are many religious groups such as the Christian Union and the Islamic
Society, , academic-oriented societies like the Mathsoc,
Classical Society, Filmsoc
and everything in between, including such great charities as St. Vincent de
Paul, UCDSVP.
All Irish political parties are represented on campus including Young Fine
Gael, Ogra Fianna Fáil, The Socialist Party, The Socialist Workers Party, Sinn
Féin, The Green Party, The Progressive Democrats and UCD Labour
Youth. The college has two debating unions. The largest and oldest
student society is the Literary and Historical Society,
which is currently in its 154rd session. The UCD Law
Society is the second debating society, aside from debating it also
acts as a class, academic and professional development society. The UCD Medical
Society is now entering it's 99th Session is another class and
professional development society. Away from politics and debating the UCD Dramsoc
is the university drama society, it is noted for an active membership and a
number of notable alumni. The university also has a successful sinfonia called University College Dublin Symphony
Orchestra.
