JUNE EZINE 2019

We received many positive comments from staff about our ‘One DCU’ events last month. Thank you to everyone who participated in these. The events (a series of campus social gatherings, and an online ‘One DCU’ Fuse event) aimed to address our Strategic Goal #5 (Value and Develop our Staff Community).

These activities were a very useful opportunity to listen to your ideas, concerns and suggestions. Director of HR, Marian Burns, and her team will provide feedback shortly regarding the messages derived from the events and the actions planned in response.

One issue that was raised in a number of the conversations concerned DCU’s Values and the importance of living up to these in our institutional behaviour. Some indicated that they were not aware of our values. With that in mind, I thought it would be useful to include our Vision, Mission and Values, as laid out in our Strategic Plan Talent, Discovery and Transformation, in this month’s ezine.

Mission:

To transform lives and societies through education, research, innovation, and engagement.

Vision:

DCU will be a globally-significant University of Transformation and Enterprise that is renowned for:

— the development of talent,

— the discovery and translation of knowledge to advance society,

— its focus on creativity and innovation,

— the advancement and application of technology

— its commitment to sustainability.

Culture and Values:

We foster a culture that is:

— Open

— Collegial

— Collaborative

— Student-focussed

— Ambitious

We are committed to:

— Equality

— Educational opportunity

— Social justice

— Ethical behaviour

— Academic freedom

It is also planned to circulate a leaflet summarising our Vision, Mission and Values to all Schools and Units in the coming weeks.

We were delighted to receive the news in May that Dublin City University has been selected as the inaugural winner of the Student Sport Ireland Sports College of the Year Award! During the 2018-19 academic year, DCU entered 12 teams across five different sporting competitions run by Student Sport Ireland. DCU won Women’s Rugby Division 1, Division 2, and Tier 1 Cup, Men’s and Women’s Rugby Sevens, and were Runners Up in Men’s Volleyball.  DCU topped the Student Sport Ireland League tables across all the Higher Education Institutions in Ireland.

The  Award was presented by Carmel Lynch, Chairperson of Student Sport Ireland to Yvonne McGowan, DCU Senior Sport Development Officer, and Rob Mullen, DCU Rugby Development Officer, at the Student Sport Ireland Networking event on May 23rd.  

Congratulations are due to James Galvin and the team in DCU Sports & Wellbeing and also to Una Redmond and the team in the Office of Student Life for their role in developing and supporting Clubs in DCU to achieve this significant award.

DCU has received a very positive report from Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), following our Institutional Quality Review earlier this year.

The report of the review carried out by an international panel of experts was published last month.

The review report included the following commendations:

• the progress achieved by DCU in the incorporation process. It applauded the University’s commitment to securing buy-in to the concept of “one DCU”, the creation of a new, shared, mission and values, and the singularity of purpose of the Faculty Deans.

• the engagement of the Governing Authority’s external members with the quality assurance and enhancement agenda.

• the creation of the Quality Promotions Office and the co-location within it of the institutional research function.It has greatly improved quality assurance and enhancement activities at the University, providing focussed process support for improvements.

• the University’s comprehensive and inclusive approach to the development of the 2017-22 strategic plan and its ‘rolling planning’ process.

• the University-wide commitment to research and its continuing efforts to identify and refine its research priorities.

• the extensive range of services provided by the Student Support and Development Centre (welcoming in particular the proposed Leadership and Life-skills centre) and its informed approach to developing, evaluating and adapting its services.

• the proposed development of the Global Experience and Global Citizenship Plan and its associated Language Plan.

• the operation of DCU Connected, its strategic and dynamic approach, and its alignment with the Institutional Mission in terms of opening access and delivering online learning.

• the innovative INTRA programme and welcomes its potential roll out to all undergraduate programmes as part of the new DCU Strategic Plan.

• the proactive work of the TEU aligned to the institutional strategy and its responsiveness to staff demand.

• DCU’s commitment to widening participation in third level education and with its new initiatives relating to prospective learners with autism, learners within the asylum system, and to students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds pursuing a teacher education programme.

• DCU’s procedure for students at risk of academic non-progression, not only for a clear methodology for identifying at risk students but also for ensuring that it is a student-centred and student-led approach.

DCU is the first Irish university to undergo QQI’s CINNTE review. The state agency is responsible for the external Quality Assurance of Further and Higher Education and Training in Ireland.

The review panel also made recommendations on areas for improvement in the coming years. Recommendations for improvement included:

• Independent evaluation of the student learning experience at module level

• Development of university-wide policies on minimum standards to ensure consistent learning experiences across faculties and schools

• Clarification and streamlining of strategy and QA processes in relation to Transnational Education partnerships

• Implementation of DCU’s Performance Management Development Scheme to ensure quality and provide staff support

The recent naming ceremony for the Veronica Guerin Lecture Theatre was a very moving event.  Veronica was not only one of Ireland’s most fearless and dedicated journalists, she was also a trailblazer for equality.

The naming is part of Project 50:50, one of a suite of initiatives under the DCU Women in Leadership programme, and entails a commitment by the university to name half of our major buildings and lecture theatres after inspiring females.

We were honoured to be joined by members of Veronica’s family, including her brother Jimmy. He told those gathered that the pain of his sister’s murder will never go away, but the honour of naming one of DCU’s lecture theatres in her honour would help to ease the family’s loss. Jimmy said: “The naming of this theatre is, in a way, Veronica returning to a place she loved.”

Veronica had a strong affinity with DCU, having served as a member of the Governing Authority at DCU/NIHE for ten years, from 1982 - 1992. In 2007, our School of Communications and Independent News & Media (INM) established a memorial scholarship in memory of Veronica.

The Veronica Guerin Ireland Funds Fellowship, funded by the Ireland funds, was also established in 2017 and enables DCU journalism graduates to participate in the News21 programme delivered at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix.

The 2019 recipients of these bursaries were announced at the naming event:

• Alix Renaud received the Veronica Guerin Memorial Scholarship.
• Rachel Farrell was awarded the Veronica Guerin Ireland Funds Fellowship.

DCU’s commitment to word-class teaching and research relies strongly on the excellence of our technical and support teams. It was very gratifying to see one such team get the recognition it deserves during May. The Awards Committee of the Royal Society of Chemistry’s (RSC) Education Division has selected the DCU School of Chemical Sciences Technical Team to receive the RSC 2019 Higher Education Technical Excellence Award.

The award is given to those working in technical support roles within the HE Sector in the UK and Republic of Ireland.

The awarding committee highlighted the team’s development of health and safety guidelines for the Irish Higher Education system that surpass national requirements, as well as their work on developing solutions to accommodate students with disabilities in practical laboratory sessions.

The Technical team at the School of Chemical Sciences are Veronica Dobbyn, Chief Technical Officer, Damien McGuirk, Senior Technical Officer, Mary Ross, Senior Technical Officer, Vincent Hooper, Senior Technical Officer, John McLoughlin, Senior Technical Officer, Catherine Keogh, Technical Officer, Aisling McCarthy, Technical Officer, Ambrose May, Stores Manager, Mary Tspon, Accounts Assistant.

DCU’s international reputation for producing world-class journalism graduates has been highlighted again, with two major awards for DCU Alumni in the United States.

Paula McMahon, a DCU Master’s in Journalism graduate, was part of a small team of Florida-based reporters which was awarded the prestigious Pulitzer Prize for Public Service journalism 2019.

Paula and the team at the South Florida Sun Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale won their Pulitzer for exposing failings by school and law enforcement officials before and after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last year.

Paula graduated from DCU with a Diploma in Journalism in 1990, and in 2012 she completed a DCU Master’s in Journalism.

More recently, DCU journalism graduates, Rosanna Cooney and Catherine Devine, were among a group of students who were awarded the 2019 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award (College Category).

The award was in recognition of the Carnegie-Knight News21 ‘Hate in America’ investigative reporting project. This eight-month investigation, based at Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism in Phoenix, highlighted acts of intolerance, racism and hate crimes across the USA. The content produced by the team was published by major newspapers and news sites across the country. 

Major congratulations are due to Donnie Christian, DCU Londis Retail Manager, who is officially Ireland’s best grocery manager! Donnie beat tough competition at the 2019 Shelflife Magazine Grocery Management Awards to win the title of Supreme Champion Grocery Manager of the year.

Donnie, who manages our new Londis store on the DCU Glasnevin campus, also picked up the prize for the Large Convenience Store Manager of the Year.

The judges were particularly impressed by the sustainable nature of the store, and the emphasis on Fairtrade goods - something that aligns with DCU’s Strategic Goal No. 8 to “place sustainability at the core of the University.”

The citation for Donnie’s Supreme award said the Londis store “focuses on accommodating diverse customer needs, enhancing the customer experience, minimising the environmental footprint, and supporting more sustainable and ethical food production, officially launching Ireland’s most technologically advanced and sustainable grocery store, in the heart of the DCU Glasnevin campus.”

I very much welcome the recent opening of an important new piece of infrastructure in the School of Biotechnology. The Microbial Bioprocessing Facility (MBF) was funded from our Teaching Infrastructure Fund. This fund was established as part of our Campus Development Plan (funded primarily by loan finance from the EIB and ISIF). The aim of the Teaching Infrastructure Fund was to address deficits in teaching infrastructure arising from many years of underfunding from Government. Funds were allocated to our 5 faculties each of which made their own decisions regarding funding priorities.

In deciding to invest in the MBF, the Faculty of Science and Health is reinforcing one of DCU’s original flagship degree programmes. Ireland’s first Biotechnology degree was developed at DCU over thirty-five years ago, after foresight exercises predicted that the future of production lay at the interface between biology and process engineering.

Ireland is now one of the biggest producers of biopharmaceuticals in the world and north Dublin is a major international hub for the production of the latest, life-saving drugs emerging from the laboratories of all the big players in biopharma.

By focusing this investment on microbial bioprocessing we can position ourselves to be the number one facility in the country for not only teaching microbial bioprocessing, but also for collaborating with the many indigenous food and Agri-food companies thriving in our region.

Major congratulations are due to Professor Liam Barry from our School of Electronic Engineering who was elected recently to membership of the Royal Irish Academy (RIA).

With a strong international reputation for excellence in his field, Liam is a deserving recipient of this honour. He is a Science Foundation Ireland Principal Investigator and Director of the Radio and Optical Communications Laboratory at DCU.

His main research interests include all-optical signal processing, optical pulse generation and characterization, hybrid radio/fibre communication systems, wavelength tunable lasers for reconfigurable optical networks, and optical performance monitoring.

He has published over 200 articles in international peer-reviewed journals, 250 papers in international peer-reviewed conferences, and holds 10 patents in the area of optoelectronics. His work and intellectual property has led to the establishment of two successful spin-out companies. 

I think everyone who attended the recent symposium DCU and the Sustainable Development Goals would agree that it was a hugely positive and impressive event.

The day-long event featured presentations by colleagues from across the university, highlighting key DCU research relating to the SDGs. The 17 goals provided an excellent lens through which to view the breadth and scale of the research that is being conducted at this university. Indeed the SDGs will also inform DCU’s first Annual Impact Report, which is due to be published in September (an all-staff email regarding this has just been circulated from my office).

The day also highlighted many overlapping areas of research, and sowed the seeds of future cross-faculty collaboration.

Congratulations and gratitude are due to the event organisers, Dr Roisín Lyons and Dr Robert Gillander from DCU Business School, for having the vision to organise this excellent event.

The month of May saw the presentation of the President’s Awards for both Teaching Excellence and Research.

Beginning with the Research Awards, the ceremony provides a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the work and achievements of our research community. By honouring excellence (and also impact for the first time) in research, the awards remind us of the fundamental importance of our work in knowledge creation and knowledge transfer. The values underpinning the awards are very much in line with our vision “to be a globally significant university that is renowned for its discovery and translation of knowledge to advance society”.  

This year’s recipients of the President’s Awards for Research were as follows:

Dr. James J. Walsh (School of Chemical Sciences) for his research into a new method of turning atmospheric CO2 into liquid fuels, Dr Walsh was presented with the DCU President’s Research Award for Early Career Research Staff.

Dr. Jane Suiter (School of Communications) for her research on data-journalism including issues such as the rise of ‘Fake News’, Dr Suiter was the recipient of this year’s President’s Research Award in the area of Humanities and Social Sciences, Business, Education and related areas.

Prof. Gabriel Muntean (School of Electronic Engineering) for work that includes research to improve communications in Internet of Things networks, Prof. Muntean was the recipient of this year’s President’s Research Award in Natural Sciences, Health, Engineering and related areas.

The inaugural President’s Awards for Research Impact were also presented at the ceremony. For the purpose of the awards, "research impact is understood as an effect on, change or benefit to the economy, society, culture, public policy or services, health, the environment, or quality of life, beyond academia".

This year’s recipients were:

Professor Kate Irving (School of Nursing and Human Sciences) for the extensive range of work she has done and continues to do on the dementia service and policy landscape in Ireland.

Professor Regina Connolly (DCU Business School) for the impact of a report that she prepared for the Department of Agriculture aimed at Improving ICT uptake and reducing the Digital Divide in Agricultural and Rural Communities.

Last month also saw the presentation of the President’s Awards for Excellence in Teaching. In particular, I want to commend Anne Kirwan (School of Nursing and Human Sciences) who was presented with the overall award for teaching excellence.

This is always one of the most inspiring and energising events in the DCU calendar, and this year was no different. The event is a celebration of excellence and achievement in teaching and an opportunity to recognise the transformative effect that DCU’s great teachers have on students, and on the University as a whole.

In our Strategic Plan ‘Talent, Discovery and Transformation’, our very first Strategic Goal is to ‘provide a transformative student experience’. Our educators and their support teams routinely go ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ to ensure that our students get the best possible learning experience. The awards also recognise the crucial role of those who support teachers and teaching. This category includes groups working in administration and student support.  

President’s Awards for Teaching Excellence 2019

Teaching Excellence Award

Anne Kirwan, School of Nursing and Human Sciences

Teaching Support Award

Shirley O’Brien, Open Education Unit/DCU Connected

Team Award

DCU Careers Service Team, Student Support and Development

Distinctive Approaches to Teaching Award

Dr Eabhnat Ní Fhloinn, School of Mathematical Sciences

Distinctive Approaches to Assessment & Feedback Award

Dr David Robbins, School of Communications

Distinctive Approaches to Innovation in Teaching Award

Paula Murphy, School of Arts, Education & Movement

New Lecturer/Tutor Award

Padraig McKeon, School of Communications

As you may know, DCU was the world’s first Age-friendly University. In establishing the principles guiding the Age-Friendly University concept, we have shown real leadership in promoting the participation of older people in Higher Education.

A growing number of Higher Education institutions have now signed up to these principles. Last month, the network welcomed its 50th member, Ontario Tech University in Canada. The worldwide network now includes universities in Europe, North America and South Korea, and it is expected to continue its growth over the coming years.