Dear Colleagues,
Welcome to my first bulletin of the new academic year.
First of all, I would like to thank and congratulate all of you on a very smooth and very successful start to the academic session. I know that Schools and Support Units are, effectively, doing more work with fewer staff and key resources. Your commitment to the institution and its students comes across very clearly, and will sustain us through what is bound to be a difficult year.
I would like to welcome John Howard as University Librarian and David Foster as Director of the Career Development Service. They are worthy successors to Seán Phillips and Colm Tobin respectively and will bring renewed leadership and vigour to these essential university services.
Finally, our priorities for this year are undergraduate programme planning, the development of the taught graduate portfolio and internationalisation.
This bulletin focuses on internationalisation and I will update you on other priority activities in future bulletins.
Philip Nolan
Registrar and Vice-President for Academic Affairs
You will have noted from the recent message to staff from the President that internationalisation is a key priority for the University at present. This is being manifested in a range of activities taking place across UCD, and is also leading to a critical reflection about the types of university policies and procedures which need to be in place in order to allow internationalisation to deliver wide-ranging benefits to the University. Programme leaders are currently engaged in a multi-year enrolment planning process, and this includes a consideration of the capacity to welcome greater numbers of international students into their classes. A number of Schools will shortly be awarded financial support under the International Student Recruitment Seed Funding Scheme; the support will allow these Schools to develop recruitment initiatives in a number of new target countries. The outcomes of the Seed Funding Scheme will provide valuable international recruitment models which can be adapted to a wide range of Schools in the years to come. In parallel with international student recruitment initiatives, we are reviewing the underlying administrative functions which support such students. The speed and efficiency of the admissions process, the availability of on-campus accommodation, the availability of pre-sessional and in-sessional English language support and the level of pastoral care provided to international students are critical factors which influence the relative attractiveness of UCD as a study destination for high-quality students from around the world. Over the coming months I will be supporting a number of projects looking at how UCD can best support internationalisation in such areas.
New UCD Librarian and Director of UCD Careers
UCD staff will be pleased to know that Dr John Brooks Howard will take up his post as University Librarian on 1 October 2009. Dr Howard has a long and distinguished career in libraries in the United States system. He has held positions at Harvard College (1998-2001) and Harvard Medical School (2001-2004), and also served as Associate Dean of Libraries and Professor of Informatics in the School of Computing and Informatics at Arizona State University from 2004 to 2009.
The University's Career Development Centre has also received a welcome boost through the recent appointment of new Director, Dr David Foster. David joins UCD from Queen's University Belfast. David plans to work closely with Schools on career related matters, assisted by Deputy Director Mr David Casey and Ms Ena Maguire, Careers Advisor. The team is currently about to launch two major events in October 2009:
- Career Awareness Week (29 September 2009 - 2 October 2009) - linking students to potential employers, role models and entrepreneurs through a range of lectures and workshops, with guest speaker, entrepreneur Denis O'Brien
- Careers Fair (8 October 2009) - connecting UCD students with around 60 recruiting employers and graduate study providers. Leading recruiters attending include: Whirlpool, KPMG, Intel, Arthur Cox and many more.
- Fellowships Report: funded by the HEA's Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF)
The Report on the Fellowships in Teaching and Academic Development 2007-09, which focuses on First Year Experience and Student Engagement in UCD, is now available at: http://www.ucd.ie/fellows/fellowships_report_2007-09.pdf
- Module Innovation Support Grant Winners funded by SIF
The winners of the module innovation support grants of 2009 are listed at: http://www.ucd.ie/tl/moduleinnovationsupportgrants/ - New General Elective Modules; part-funded by SIF
Funding has been awarded to the following Schools for new Elective modules:
- History of Art: 'Art & Architecture in Dublin: A Selected Introduction'
- Geological Sciences: 'Earth, Environment & Society'
- Irish, Celtic Studies: 'Irish Folklore & Linguistics: Myths & Legends in Irish Folklore'
- Psychology: 'Introduction to Applied Psychology'
- Music: 'Opera from Monteverdi to Verdi'
- New Vice-Principal for Teaching and Learning in the College of Life Sciences
Dr Declan Patton, School of Nursing, Midwifery and Health Systems, has been appointed as Vice-Principal for Teaching and Learning in the College of Life Sciences. The Registrar and Deputy Registrar for Teaching & Learning welcome Declan onto the UCD Teaching, Learning and Academic Development team. - School Heads of Teaching
A number of schools have new Heads of Teaching for this academic year. The updated list can be found at: www.ucd.ie/tl Sincere thanks to academic staff who take on this important role in their schools and colleges. - Module Student Feedback Pilot: funded by SIF
Development tests on a possible new on-line student feedback system will be carried out by IT Services in October 2009. Further information is available at www.ucd.ie/teaching - Colloquium funded by SIF
A Colloquium on 'Teaching and Research Linkages' will take place in UCD on 16 October 2009. The keynote speaker will be Professor Andrea Nolan, Vice-Principal of Learning, Teaching and Internationalisation, University of Glasgow. Professor Nolan is internationally recognised in the area of developing research-minded expertise in graduates. Details will be available shortly at: www.ucd.ie/teaching
Three Technology Enhanced Spaces in Daedalus for Start of Term 2009
IT Services have further developed the Daedalus facilities in preparation for Start of Term 2009 with two refurbished Teaching and Learning spaces, a large (56 seat) space and a smaller (26 seat) classroom equipped with lecture capture and presentation technology. A new Flexible Learning Space is wireless enabled for laptop users and offers an adaptable environment to work in small groups. The 3 new spaces were developed following the successful pilot of technology in 2008. The technology available includes - 'Review for U' - a lecture capture solution that allows the presenter to easily capture different aspects of their class and to make it available to their students as a Podcast via their Blackboard module. The process can be fully automated by scheduling in advance or can be carried out as a series of simple steps by the lecturer on the day.
Institutional Review - Preliminary Notice
In 2004, the Irish Universities Quality Board (IUQB) and the Higher Education Authority (HEA) jointly commissioned the European University Association to undertake the first cycle of institutional quality reviews of the seven Irish universities. The review of UCD took place during the calendar year 2004. The outcomes of this review were published in 2005 as the Review of Quality Assurance in Irish Universities.
The second cycle of institutional quality reviews is expected to take place from 2009-2012. Institutions can expect to undergo IRIU normally every six years. The institutional review site visit of UCD is scheduled to take place in February/March 2011.
Registration 2009/10
The 2009/10 registration season started on 17 August and ended on 18 September for undergraduates and 25 September for graduates. Registry worked closely with colleagues from all across the university in the detailed planning for these six busy weeks. Initial feedback from around the university indicates this was a very successful registration season and that 'getting registered' is now a relatively low hurdle for most students. For instance, 90% of undergraduates had 50 credits or more on the first day of lectures - this is out of 200,000 module registrations by 21,000 students. The goal is to give students a good start to the year, help them engage with their programmes and to minimise administrative follow-ups during the year. The registration review process is due to commence shortly but the consensus is that this goal has been achieved. Well done to all involved.
Admissions
In 2009, there were 4,272 places available on full-time courses in UCD through the CAO system. Prior to Round 1, 572 were filled (via the early rounds for mature students, deferrals, etc). In Round 1, 4,524 offers were made for the remaining 3,700 places. Acceptance rates in some programme areas were considerably higher than anticipated. This year was unusual because the GCE A-level results were not issued in time for inclusion in Round 1. However, this did not result in any significant differences with 89 acceptances out of 290 in 2009 compared with 85 acceptances out of 303 offers in 2008. Both Admissions and Accommodation took extra measures to facilitate these students. Equally, the number of deferrals to date this year is almost identical to last year, 197 and 198 respectively. The trend from the small number of offers made post round 2, seems to indicate a lower acceptance rate than previous years with applicants more reluctant to change from their initial acceptance.
Academic Secretariat
In a recent email to staff, Academic Secretariat highlighted a number of developments which come into effect for the 2009/10 academic year, including changes to Academic Council and its Committees, Academic Regulations and details about the new Programme Development, Approval and Review Framework. For further details, visit http://www.ucd.ie/registry/communications_archive.html
