University College Dublin

Overview

Founded in 1854, University College Dublin is an autonomous research-extensive university and also the largest university by enrollment size in Ireland. The 330-acre campus of the institution is set in Belfield, forming a mixture of modern buildings and Georgian architecture. It is affiliated with seven organizations including the European University Association, the Conference of European Schools for Advanced Engineering Education and Research, and Universitas 21.

The university has six colleges: Arts and Humanities; Business; Engineering and Architecture; Health and Agricultural Sciences; Sciences; and Social Sciences and Law. These are further subdivided into 37 schools. Among the programs it offers, some of the most distinguished are Veterinary Medicine; Nursing; English and English Literature; and Sport and Performance Sciences.

Outside of Dublin, the university runs a global network with 400 institutions in 89 countries that offer intensive UCD academic programs. A few of these are the Royal College of Surgeons and UCD Malaysia Campus; the Beijing-Dublin International College; and the University of Cyprus.

When it comes to research and innovation, University College Dublin focuses mainly on six subjects: Agri-Food; Culture, Economy, and Society; Information and Communications Technology; Environment; Energy; and Health. Some of the notable projects of the university are related to those areas. For health, the university actively tried to find new therapies that can treat orthopedic infection. In the realm of culture and society, on the other hand, the university utilizes Big Data to analyze texts in a study of migration and culture in Britain during the Victorian era.

University College Dublin has received funding from the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science. The investment is used in research projects that allow enterprises and employers to tap experts in the higher education institution. This undertaking is under the Irish Research Council’s Enterprise Partnership Scheme.

UCD is known to produce outstanding graduates in literature, media and entertainment, and sports. Perhaps the most well-known among these is James Joyce who wrote Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, two of the most difficult books to read according to their readers. Other authors who came from the university are Maeve Binchy, Roddy Doyle, Marinna Carr, Emma Donoghue, Colm Tóibín, and Flann O’Brien. Award-winning actors graduated from the institution too, with Brendan Gleeson being one of them. In sports, there is Kevin Moran who was once captain of Manchester United and the Irish football team.