Office of the Vice-President for Academic Affairs
Senior Leadership Team
Professor Lisa Looney
Professor Lisa Looney is DCU Vice President for Academic Affairs and Registrar and a member of the DCU senior management team. As well as the substantial regulatory and policy responsibilities attaching to this position, she leads the formulation and implementation of the university Teaching and Learning strategy. Working with senior colleagues, and supported by the constituent units of Academic Affairs, Professor Looney has overall responsibility for the regulation and development of courses and programmes, examinations and assessments, and all matters relating to students' studies. Lisa is also Executive Sponsor of both DCU Futures and the Student Information System programme: two very significant transformational projects underway in the university. She is a Board member of ECIU university (a European University in which DCU is a member), current chairman of the Board of the CAO and a member of the Irish University Association (IUA) Registrar’s group.
Prior to taking up this role, Prof Looney was Executive Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Computing (2017-2020), Dean of Graduate Studies (2011-2016), and a founding member of academic staff in the School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering in DCU.
In her role as Executive Dean, Lisa led a Faculty with a very strong research profile – it is home to three large Science Foundation Ireland-funded research centres; Insight (Data Analytics), ADAPT (next generation digital content) and I-Form (additive manufacturing). She prioritised strategic curriculum renewal with a particular emphasis on innovation in master's programmes (including transnational and online delivery), grew academic staffing, championed initiatives on student engagement and in infrastructure development to support challenge-based learning. She has a track record in internationalisation and has been a champion for women in STEM over a number of decades.
As Dean of Graduate Studies in DCU, Lisa and was particularly active in the European Universities Association Council for Doctoral Education. She was instrumental in drafting the Irish National Framework for Doctoral Education, and led the development of Ireland’s Framework of Good Practice for Research Degree Programmes published in 2019.
Lisa’s disciplinary background is mechanical engineering, and her research expertise includes areas of materials processing, particularly biomaterials. She is a very experienced doctoral supervisor and research examiner. She undertook her PhD in the Netherlands as a sponsored fellow of the European Commission and has a first class honours degree in Mechanical Engineering from Trinity College Dublin. She has also lived and worked as a researcher in New Zealand.
Professor Sharon O'Brien
Professor Sharon O'Brien is currently the Dublin City University Dean of Graduate Studies, with responsibility for strategy, policy and regulation relating to graduate research in the University, and for providing support to DCU's doctoral and research master's students and their supervisors. Prof O'Brien leads the Graduate Studies Office, and chairs the DCU Graduate Research Studies Board. She is a member of the Irish Universities Association (IUA) Deans of Graduate Studies group, and is a regular contributor to meetings of the European Universities Association Council for Doctoral Education (EUA- CDE). She was awarded the degrees of B.A. in Applied Languages from DCU in 1991 and an MA by Research in 1993. After working in the language services industry for some time, she obtained a PhD in Machine Translation from Dublin City University in 2006. Professor O'Brien has supervised and graduated over 14 PhD students and has mentored several post-doctoral researchers, many of whom were funded by the Irish government, the European Commission, or by industry partners.
Ms Pauline Mooney
Ms Pauline Mooney was appointed to the role of Academic Secretary in 2016. In this capacity Pauline provides strategic administrative support to the VPAA/Registrar, assuming responsibility for and/or contributing significantly to the implementation of major strategic initiatives that lie within the VPAA/Registrar’s remit, as well as to the formulation of University policy. She is also responsible for the Academic Secretariat and Academic Systems units. Pauline is a member of Academic Council, Education Committee and the Student Information System (SIS) Steering Group.
Pauline holds a BA (Hons) in Modern History and Irish and an MA (Research) in History from St Patrick’s College, Maynooth (now Maynooth University). Working continuously within the Higher Education sector, she held positions in St Patrick’s College, Maynooth and in the Higher Education and Training Awards Council (now subsumed within QQI) before joining DCU in 2001. Pauline has occupied a number of management and leadership roles within DCU including that of Faculty Manager in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences and subsequently in the Faculty of Science and Health. In 2014 she assumed the role of Senior Project Manager (Student Experience) within the DCU Incorporation Project, a role she occupied until her appointment to her current role.
Interim Director of Registry - Ms Gillian Barry
Dr Susan Hegarty
Dr Susan Hegarty is a geographer and Associate Professor in the DCU School of History and Geography. She is Institutional Lead for DCU Futures, within the Office of the Vice President for Academic Affairs. Her research focuses on citizen science for monitoring water quality, and on the evolution of the Irish landscape and our use of that landscape. She has researched the role of the Quaternary ice-sheets on this landscape and the role Quaternary sediments play in the vulnerability of water sources to pollutants. She is also interested in the exploitation of Irish mineral resources in the nineteenth century.
She is enthusiastic about transmitting the importance of Geography to the wider public, and to this end has taken part in a number of documentary series on both Irish and British television channels and is involved in a number of citizen science projects looking at water quality in Ireland. She also sees fieldwork as an integral part of the training of geography students, and promotes field studies within undergraduate geography. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Dr Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl
Dr Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl is Dublin City University’s Director of Micro-Credential Strategy and Innovation. Dr Nic Giolla Mhichíl leads the OVPAA's DCU Studio unit, established in 2021 as an innovation, production and development unit focused on driving and delivering learning opportunities at scale and in line with DCU’s T&L strategy. Dr Mairéad Nic Giolla Mhichíl provides key strategic leadership in the areas learning innovation, micro-credentialing, short form, digital and flexible learning space at institutional national and European levels..
Mairéad has been influential in shaping both national and European policy, working closely with the European Commission and UNESCO in the area of Micro-Credentials and is a regular keynote speaker and invited panellist at major conferences both nationally and internationally. She is currently a member of the National Steering Committee of the Micro-Creds projects, and she is micro-credential lead on behalf of the ECIU University Alliance. Her interests in micro-credentialing draw on her deep knowledge of the EHEA and Recognition Tools.
Mairéad has attracted significant national and international funding to DCU for her research, teaching, and learning initiatives including multiple Erasmus+ awards as PI and is currently leading the DigiAdvance project working with leading Universities across Europe and SMEs under the Digital Europe Programme. Mairéad has a keen interest in digital transformation and implementation in Higher Education and is Chief Co-Editor of the International Journal of Technology in Higher Education. She is a former Associate Dean for Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, where she Lectures and supervises students. Mairéad was also a Tech Impact Scholar with the University of Notre Dame in the US and has served on numerous national and European committees for Teaching and Learning.