Leading Change: DCU launches 5-year strategic plan

The Taoiseach, Mr Bertie Ahern, td today officially launched the strategic plan for Dublin City University. He also unveiled the university's new corporate identity - a logo showing DCU lifted by three rings representing research, education and creativity.

The plan, "Leading Change", sets out the focus for the university over the coming five years and according to the president of DCU, Professor Ferdinand von Prondzynski, shows how the university intends to play a significant role in Irish society. "Universities should be living institutions with a vital social purpose. We have always had excellent relations with industry through our INTRA student placement programme but over the coming years we wish to network even more closely with external partners and promote collaboration across academic boundaries."

DCU's Access programme facilitates students who have the ability to pursue higher level education but, because of social or economic reasons, do not have the CAO entry requirements. There are currently 80 Access students studying degree programmes. Two students have been accepted on to masters programmes and a further one will begin a PhD this year. At present, 5% of new places are set aside for Access students.

Rather than defining the university by academic discipline, the strategic plan sets out six themes: Communication, arts and culture, Education and learning, Business and innovation, Science, discovery and technological innovation, Life sciences and health in society, Social development and world order. "Our aim is to innovate." Said Professor von Prondzynski. "This is best achieved by a mixing of minds - a crossing of disciplines. Computer scientists, journalists, medical scientists, engineers, sociologists and linguists by pooling their ability can create new things - such as cancer treatments or digital video processing. "

DCU intends to pursue a much more active level of partnership and collaboration across universities and with people and organisations outside academia. Examples include the National Centre for Sensor Research working with Yorkshire Water on water pollution, the Vision Systems Laboratory working with the Mater Hospital, the Masters programme run by the DCU Business School on the Citibank premises in the IFSC and the joint masters in science communication with Queen's University.

Later this summer DCU will open Invent, an innovation and enterprise centre that will provide a dynamic, purpose-built facility for start-up companies. Investment in Invent has so far exceeded £5 million and the total capital cost of the project is £7.3 million.

DCU has a current population of 6,000 full-time undergraduates, 1,500 post-graduates and 2,500 distance education students.

Over the past ten years the university has undertaken an infrastructural building programme costing over £200 million. Almost 2/3 of the cost was raised through private funding. The most recent buildings include a new library costing £17.5 million; the architecturally excellent student centre "The Hub" with coffee bar, pub, secretarial bureau, student union offices, seminar and meeting facilities, concert venue, bookshop and travel bureau; and a postgraduate centre costing £7.4 million that includes accommodation for 100 postgrads as well as social, study and research facilities. The University Arts Centre is currently under construction and will cost £22 million. The centre will provide a 500 seater concert hall as well as an experimental theatre, exhibition space and studios for artists-in-residence.

Like all universities, DCU faces a number of challenges in the coming years. Knowledge and research are built firmly into the National Development Plan and universities are central to their delivery. The student population is becoming more diverse with the development of lifelong learning and a multicultural society. Universities are facing a wider range of more intense competition and the impact of technological development and economic growth on society is a more critical issue than ever.

According to Professor von Prondzynski, today's university needs to be integrated in a much wider knowledge community and to network with it. It needs to be an engine of creating wealth, of improving social conditions and of promoting discovery, as well as to educate and equip people of all ages.

"Through the period of this strategic plan, DCU will harness the best of both new technology and face-to-face communication; we will strengthen the staff and student community and we will place particular emphasis on building ethical awareness in all areas of university activity as well as in relation to national and global issues." Professor von Prondzynski said.

Ends.

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