Dublin City University

Dublin City University (DCU) is a young university, situated on an 85 acre campus three miles north of the River Liffey in the city centre and just a 15-minute drive from Dublin airport. DCU is the host to OSCAIL, founded in 1982 - see notes below.

Dublin City University was initially set up to fulfil the national requirement for a highly-trained workforce with skills in the areas of business, science and electronics, computer technology, communications and languages and as an agent for change in its local community. The first students came through the door in 1980 and the university is now recognised nationally and internationally as a centre of academic excellence.

It was awarded university status in 1989. There are now 10,000 registered students at DCU, a figure which includes full-time undergraduate and postgraduate students as well as students on the Distance Education degree programme.

Its web site is at http://www.dcu.ie

See also the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_City_University

Details

(sourced from http://www.dcu.ie/info/about.shtml)

At the time of its incorporation as a university, DCU was considered at the time to be an "unconventional" university. It broke with the traditional mould and introduced a number of ideas, which had enormous impact on the Irish education system. DCU was the first university in Ireland to introduce work placement (INTRA) as part of its degree programmes. The aim is for students to put their academic skills into practice in the work environment. Its degree programmes were also the first to be interdisciplinary, with, for example science students taking business courses, business students taking languages and language students taking computing. Many DCU students study at universities in Spain, France, Germany and Austria as part of their degree programmes under Erasmus exchange agreements.

DCU has developed its own research specialisms, creating a number of national centres of excellence that collaborate with other universities and industry internationally. These research centres have transcended traditional boundaries and have been extended to include combinations of academic disciplines such as biotechnology, electronic engineering, physics and chemistry. Visit the Research Centres web page.

The design of the campus and the bright modern architecture make DCU a vibrant and attractive place to study. The campus is laid out to encourage community interaction with the John & Aileen O'Reilly Library at the East end and the restaurant and Helix Arts Centre at the West end. It is a place where young people can live, learn and develop in a dynamic but intimate environment. One of the objectives of the university is the strengthening of the campus as a vibrant social and learning environment and the pursuit of a holistic approach to student development. DCU prides also itself on the range of its facilities, both academic and recreational.

There are over degree 80 programmes, divided almost equally between undergraduate and postgraduate courses. Postgraduate research supervision is provided on a broad range of subject areas across all disciplines, including technology, engineering, business, communications, humanities, science and health.

Full-time and Modular students: 6,704

Part-time students: 1,189

Distance Education (Oscail) 2,500

Distance education and e-learning including VLE selection

Since the mid 1990s, DCU has experimented with a range of e-learning technologies and Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), including FirstClass, TopClass, PageOUT and WebCT. In 2002, DCU was the first university in Ireland to formally adopt Moodle. (It has since been followed by other universities and Institutes of Technology, as well as large open universities, including the OUUK.)

Oscail, the National Distance Education Centre has been providing distance courses to Irish adults since 1982 - the year it was established by Dublin City University. Since 2000, Oscail has converted a number of its traditional distance education programmes into eLearning programmes. A number of DCU schools (for example, the Schools of Electronic Engineering, Nursing and Physics, Law and Government, as well as individual academics in other schools) have developed significant experience in eLearning.

The [Learning Innovation Unit (LIU)][1] and [Information Systems & Services Department][2] have been instrumental in rolling out Moodle throughout the university. LIU has worked with a large number of academics and schools to raise awareness of eLearning and develop eLearning skills and capacity through seminars, workshops, and training courses, as well as individual support.

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