Student Experience 2021-2022
At DCU, our enduring goal is to ensure everyone who enrols at the University benefits from our ‘transformative student experience’. This means not just the provision of an excellent and innovative curriculum that meets students’ career aspirations. It entails fostering a culture where the whole person can develop, grow and flourish. Our success in achieving this balance is reflected in the continuing strength of demand for DCU courses. In September 2022 offers the University made its highest-ever number of offers to first-preference applicants for undergraduate programmes. Over 3,800 new students joined first-year programmes at the University’s five faculties the following month.
In October 2021 pandemic restrictions had eased, but it was clear that the incoming cohort of students would need additional supports to help them navigate University life. First years were invited to take part in First Year Check-in at DCU, an online survey that assessed how they were adjusting to life at DCU. Participation in the survey and its resulting feedback was used by DCU to refine its student-focused information and signpost the activities and resources that might help students adjust to university learning during their first semester. The University’s research expertise was enlisted to create FLOURISH, a highly successful module focused on student wellbeing. Improved sleep, nutrition and understanding of their personal health and fitness data were among the positive outcomes and findings of a report on the module. A unique initiative to improve well-being was trialled in March 2022 when trainee guide dogs visited the University to help alleviate exam stress for students. The dogs from The Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind were part of a project called PAWS (Promoting And supporting the Wellbeing of Students). At the start of the 2021-22 academic year, DCU and DCU Students’ Union launched an initiative to make period products freely available to students in all ground floor women’s bathrooms and within gender-neutral bathrooms across both DCU Glasnevin and St. Patrick’s Campus. The products are further available from the Students’ Union and DCU Health Centre directly. Meanwhile, the University was nominated in the Times Higher Education Awards 2022 for the MyDCU project – an innovative pre and post-orientation immersive learning environment for new students – was shortlisted in the category of Outstanding Support for Students.
In the THE awards, the University’s Access to the Workplace programme was also nominated. This forms part of DCU’s long track record of increasing access and creating new pathways to Higher Education has long been recognised. During the year, the University announced plans to create stronger connections with the Further Education and Training (FET) sector. This entails an increase in undergraduate programmes allowing entry from FET courses from 31 to 68. From 2022, the requirement for most programmes will be any QQI Level 5 award with 5 distinctions.
New technology and sustainability were prominent features of DCU’s student experience during the year. A new Virtual Reality learning lab opened in DCU Business School, which will offer students an opportunity to develop leadership skills using cutting-edge virtual reality and telepresence technologies. The lab was established with philanthropic support from Digicel, to honour business leader and DCU alumnus Colm Delves who made a long-lasting contribution to the university through support for the DCU Access Programme and the establishment of the Digicel Summer Internship Programme. Meanwhile, DCU launched a new EU-funded Masters in Law, Data and Artificial Intelligence. The programme aims to bridge the gap for businesses and institutions that require experts to legally, ethically and safely process data, in particular in the context of the use of Artificial Intelligence systems.
On the sustainability front, DCU students have been engaging with others from across Europe as part of our ECIU network of universities. DCU Masters in Climate Change student Shannen Plunkett joined eight of her international peers at Hamburg’s University of Technology to work on making university campuses around Europe climate-neutral.
The collaboration is part of a growing number of challenges on which students can collaborate across the ECIU University network. Meanwhile, students taking DCU’s new BA in Climate and Environmental Sustainability took part in a 30-day sustainability challenge to coincide with the start of the COP26 summit. Among the pledges the students took on were hand-washing clothes for 30 days and eating insects as a sustainable source of protein.
Towards the end of the academic year, the University community had a chance to celebrate the success of its students that had been denied to them during the pandemic. DCU invited students back to the Helix for our June Celebration - a graduation-style event in the Mahony Hall, complete with caps and gowns. Over 5,000 graduates and their families took part in the celebration.