Dublin City University welcomes College of the Future
The selection of Swords as one of ten locations for a ‘College of The Future’ (COTF) has been welcomed by Dublin City University.
Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris announced that the green light has been given to Dublin Dun Laoghaire ETB to proceed to the next stage of developing a COTF in Swords. It is one of ten locations around the country to receive the go-ahead for bringing plans for COTF to the next stage for capital investment.
Minister Harris said:
“This is a brilliant day for Dublin Fingal. It has been chosen as one of ten locations to proceed to develop their proposal for a further education College of the Future. This is one of Ireland’s fastest growing areas and this proposed purpose-built Further Education College will help drive the region and will help it prepare the region with the skillset it needs to deliver for the people of Dublin Fingal. The College of the Future Major Projects Fund will support the implementation of the vision set out in the Further Education Strategy. "
Prof Daire Keogh, President of Dublin City University welcomed the recent announcements of significant investment in Further Education in the region
'The recent strengthening of partnerships between DCU and the Further Education (FE) sector have resulted in a significant increase in entrants from FE institutions to DCU undergraduate programmes in 2023. DCU has prioritised its engagement with FE across the region and is delighted that additional FE places and programmes will be coming on stream in the near future. For our fast growing young population of the region, this is welcome news. In the years ahead they will have access to an exciting range of tertiary options and pathways across FE and HE.”
Dublin and Dún Laoghaire Education & Training Board are leading the project and Chief Executive Caitríona Murphy welcomed the decision and added that:
“Building on existing Further Education and Training provision across Fingal to meet the growing and diverse needs of stakeholders in this area is a priority for DDLETB for some time. This approval to proceed to the next stage of proposal development in Further Education and Training is very welcome and will enable us to deliver on our ambitions for the people of Fingal and surrounding areas."
The ultimate target for DCU is that all 86 of its undergraduate programmes will have further education pathways, which complements Minister Harris’ ambition to take focus off the points-driven routes into universities. Overall DCU wants to double its current intake of students from further education from 5% to 10% of its overall intake.
The initiative in DCU is headed by Prof Anne Looney, Executive Dean of the DCU Institute of Education.
This year has also seen a loosening up of DCU’s entry requirements for entrants from colleges of further education - from this year, they will need only five distinctions from any PLC course, as opposed to the previous requirements of eight to 10 distinctions.
For some courses, integration between the university and further education college will be at a level where completion of a PLC course will be treated as the first year of a degree programme.
Prof Looney says it is not only about creating alternative routes into university, but forging closer links to the further education and higher education sectors.