Objective 2
Provide an educational experience that defines international best practice
Our students are the core of our University. The capabilities of our graduates underpin our reputation. We strive to give our students a holistic education, instilling in them a desire to learn and create, to question and reason, to innovate and to contribute to society at all levels.
UCD is the 'University of First-Choice' for Irish students and the 'University of Destination' for the largest number of international students coming to Ireland. We lead the national agenda through our open and modular curricula at both undergraduate and graduate level, which endeavour to balance the need for depth and focus with the benefit of ensuring opportunities to maintain and develop wider interests. Our educational approaches also provide learning opportunities for a wider community who wish to experience the challenge of university education.
We will increase our national advantage in this area, further developing our portfolio of undergraduate and graduate programmes and co-curricular activities to define international best practice and to become an exemplar for university education around the world. Our approach to education will further combine depth and breadth of learning with opportunities to develop the skills, knowledge, experience and attitudes needed for our graduates to flourish in an increasingly global society.
Through our research intensive environment, a UCD education will be further enriched by the quality of our research and innovation and will develop our students' capacity for critical enquiry and original thinking. This approach will extend across all of our student cohorts, occasional, flexible, undergraduate and graduate, whether in taught programmes or in research. Recognising the value of diversity in the University community, we will systematically build on this diversity for student learning and institutional excellence. Our inclusive approach to student learning will extend into the wider University and community life.
Success will be measured through: student experience surveys; the demand for our programmes and the quality and diversity of our student intake; student performance and progression while in the University; and graduate employability and progression to further education. These measures will be gathered through robust institutional data, through stakeholder reviews and through engagement with our students and alumni.
