Student Experience 2022-2023
At DCU, one of the pillars of the University’s strategic plan is ‘to pioneer a transformative student experience’. This process requires continual work, to ensure that the curriculum meets the needs of graduates in the 21st-century workplace. We also make sure that the personal supports we offer students will help them to flourish and develop as confident and resilient individuals who are ready to engage with an ‘unscripted future’.
DCU took a significant step in developing the student experience in July 2023, when it launched Care & Connect, its whole-of-university approach to positive mental and physical health and student wellbeing. Care & Connect brings together a number of services and supports for students under a single umbrella with the aim of developing a caring community where students know that their development is at the heart of everything we do at the University. As part of these evolving services, DCU Students’ Union and DCU Counselling & Personal Development Service launched the NiteLine listening service for students. Niteline is a free, confidential, non-directive and non-judgmental listening and information service that is run by and for students of DCU and other universities around Ireland. Meanwhile, DCU launched phase two of the Autism Friendly Project. The next steps for the initiative will include piloting an indoor navigation app that informs users of current noise levels in different locations on campus, and the location of quiet zones.
The excellence of the Teaching and Learning provided to students is a key element in our global standing. In 2024, DCU joined the top 500 universities in the world, as assessed by the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings. The university’s teaching, research and citation scores all rose in the 2024 rankings. DCU also rose 24 places to 89th in the world in the THE Young University rankings. Meanwhile, the University advanced to joint 436th place in the 2024 edition of the QS World University Rankings.
The high quality of DCU’s offering is reflected in the CAO figures for 2023. First preference applications to the School of Biotechnology have also risen, with the BSc in Biotechnology and the BSc in Genetics and Cell Biology increasing first preferences by 97% and 56% respectively. The Bachelor of Education in Technology, Engineering and Graphics (Post-Primary) undergraduate course, first launched in 2022, has also increased its number of first preference applications by 74%. Prospective students showed increasing interest in careers that focus on climate and sustainability, with a rise of 20% in first-preference applications to Dublin City University’s BA in Climate and Environmental Sustainability.
The University’s academic offering is evolving to meet new challenges and opportunities.
In 2023, DCU launched the MSc in Natural Language Processing (NLP), the first Master's degree of its kind in Ireland. Students on the programme will develop computer programmes that have the ability to understand and produce text, in a similar manner to ChatGPT or BARD. Meanwhile, the School of Computing, in association with the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics, launched the short course Introduction to machine learning (in the real world), which is designed to help undergraduates engage with the latest applications of machine learning in fields such as water quality, health, smart cities, autonomous vehicles, and Fintech.
The DCU Futures Conference, held in September 2023, highlighted the University’s commitment to innovation in Teaching and Learning. The meeting, on the theme ‘Integrating Transversal Skills for Higher Education’, gathered academics and industry leaders from across Ireland to discuss the work of DCU and others in this field. Key to the transversal skills agenda is DCU Futures, the University’s programme to radically re-imagine undergraduate education for the 21st century. In an increasingly unscripted world the development of transversal (or transferable) skills empowers students and graduates to build resilience and effect change.
It was another busy twelve months for researchers across DCU. The range and impact of their work included studies of levels of public trust in political parties, the development of blood tests to predict forms of cancer, a new publication on the economics of airports and the first ever study examining the school experience of autistic children in Ireland.
DCU’s recognised excellence in the field of Life Science research was reinforced with the first developments in the establishment of DCU’s new Life Sciences Institute (LSI). A key step was the appointment of Prof Anne Parle-McDermott as LSI’s inaugural Director. The LSI plans to bring all DCU Life Science researchers together under one umbrella. By fostering a creative research environment, the Institute will allow for innovative and impactful research collaborations in this important field. A prime example of Life Science research at DCU was carried out by scientists in the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology who developed a blood test to predict patients’ response to breast cancer treatment. The test lets doctors know in advance if a patient will not respond well to a first-choice therapy, providing the opportunity to use alternative treatments. The research followed a nationwide clinical trial involving women with early-stage HER2-positive breast cancer.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers are exploring ways that public health responses can be improved upon in the face of such global outbreaks. Prof Anthony Staines from the School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health is co-author of a global COVID-19 study published in the journal Nature that provides actionable recommendations to end the public health threat without exacerbating socio-economic burdens or putting the most vulnerable at greater risk. Among the key recommendations is the adoption of a whole-of-society strategy as well as a whole-of-government approach to identify, review, and address resilience in health systems and make them more responsive to people’s needs. Researchers at DCU Water Institute believe that the pandemic may have had an influence on the outcome of a study of water samples, which found they all contained pharmaceutical drugs including low levels of antidepressants and antibiotics. Samples were collected between September 2020 and March 2022 and the researchers believe the results show the effect of Covid-19 in leading to the increased use of pharmaceuticals including certain antidepressants and antibiotics. Researchers from the Water Institute also led the DCU WaterBlitz 2022 - one of the biggest citizen science projects ever in Ireland. The results suggest that Ireland has work to do to meet its EU water quality targets. Hundreds of samples were taken by 108 community and water-related activity groups across sites in all 26 counties of the Republic.
Researchers at DCU Institute of Education launched a first-of-its-kind study, The Autism Friendly Schools Project, that investigates the experiences of autistic children in primary and secondary schools across Ireland. The aim of the research is to gather data from autistic children and their families to gain a better understanding of their experiences of school life in Ireland. Another project that engaged with young people was carried out by Dr Carol Barron, School of Nursing, Psychotherapy and Community Health, who explored how teenagers can be involved in the planning and design of local facilities. A survey of teens in Celbridge Co Kildare found that their priorities included: places to meet their friends that have shelter from the rain, with Wifi and charging ports. The study suggests that by involving teenagers in planning processes they can develop a stronger sense of ownership and community investment.