Provide an inclusive educational experience that defines international best practice and prepares our graduates to thrive in present and future societies.
Our students build their ability to participate in and contribute to society by studying within an academic community and purpose-built learning environment, combining traditional research methods, specialist skills, and new technologies to develop deep subject knowledge. UCD students learn at the boundaries of human knowledge and observe the frontier of what is not yet discovered by undertaking their learning in a research-intensive environment. We equip our students to explore that frontier by developing and embedding advanced teaching and learning practices, assessment methods, and sophisticated technologies in the education we offer.
We are a global university with a diverse community, and consequently the UCD student experience exposes students to new perspectives, deepens their understanding and refines their ideas. By providing students with opportunities to study for periods abroad and to immerse themselves in other cultures, we enable them to develop the communication and language skills necessary to embrace opportunities and meet future challenges. By providing more opportunities to learn outside the classroom and to research in industrial and professional environments through internships and work placements, volunteering opportunities, and cocurricular activities we position students to learn and demonstrate their learning in new settings. Through this mainstreaming approach – (“University for All”) we recognise, promote and value diversity, foster the spirit of inclusion, appreciate the breadth of talent, experience and contribution of all students, and strive to remove the barriers to access, participation and success.
We will continue to value both depth and breadth of learning and the diverse traditions of different disciplines. This will be achieved by building innovative interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary programmes on the foundations of strong subjects and disciplines, and by using the flexibility of our curriculum to enable students to specialise at an advanced level within a given area of study or to explore more broadly a range of different subjects. We will ensure that assessment is varied, that it reliably measures the expected learning outcomes, and that all students receive the feedback necessary to continue learning from assessment activities.
Students will be challenged to encounter the questions raised by a world undergoing rapid digital transformation and facing fundamental questions of sustainability, equipping them to lead in responding to these changes and building a healthy and sustainable world. We will also provide opportunities to develop the interpersonal, intercultural, and life skills necessary for flourishing in an increasingly global and digital society. Through the development of our faculty and staff, and through purpose-built modules and specialisms, we will ensure that our four strategic themes permeate the educational experience of each student. In this way our graduates will be prepared to take their place in present and future societies.
Students will be provided with access to the supports they need, at the point they are needed and in the most accessible form to develop the attributes required to make the most of their university experience. By fostering an institutional culture that promotes inclusiveness, excellent quality and constant improvement and that values teaching and research equally – embedding institutional mechanisms that facilitate, recognise, and reward excellent teaching – we will provide structures that enable and promote educational enhancement and student success.
In promoting a culture of integrity and excellence amongst our students, the University will continue to model probity and quality as an institution. We will continue to monitor the experience of our students and the outcomes for our graduates, and to seek and react to their feedback. New ways to collect, analyse, and present this data to best inform institutional decision-making and enhance the quality of the education and student experience will be developed.