Strategic Pillars / Student Experience

Shows four students after their graduation ceremony on DCU's Glasnevin campus

DCU Strategy 2023-2028

Transformation For An Unscripted Future

Pioneer A Transformative Student Experience

Introduction

Professor Lisa Looney apoointed the new Vice President for Academic Affairs (Registrar) at DCU

Prof Lisa Looney

Vice-President for Academic Affairs and Registrar

Dublin City University is committed to giving students a world-class education that prepares them to thrive and succeed in “an unscripted future”.

Under this pillar, DCU will continue our innovative approach to curriculum development, with a focus on excellence, as demonstrated with our DCU Futures programmes.

We will also transform the way our students and staff interact thanks to the roll-out of a best-in-class Student Information System (SIS).

We will pioneer new pathways for ‘non-traditional’ students, ensuring a greater diversity of learners can access a DCU education.

The University will remain focused on providing students with opportunities, resources, supports, and facilities that will make their time at DCU transformative.

Strategic Priorities

1. Excellence

Continuing to innovate our curriculum and teaching with a focus on excellence, and expanding and embedding the DCU Futures philosophy.

2. Flexibility

Shows two students with laptop on DCU's Glasnevin campus

Expanding our provision, pathways, access and curriculum to address the diversity of learner needs and emerging system priorities.

3. Student Support

Shows students attending tutorial in DCU School of Maths

Providing an outstanding student experience and community: engagement opportunities, resources, supports, facilities and environment.

4. Academic Services

DCU Graduations - family celebrating student graduating

Transforming how students experience academic services. Enabling flexible, innovate curricula supported by new systems and services.

Our Drivers

Collective Leadership

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Collective Leadership is the idea of ‘leading where you are’.

In DCU, leadership is not confined to management roles but is diffuse and accessible to all.

People at all levels across DCU are empowered to identify opportunities, pursue new ideas, convince colleagues and management and bring their ideas to fruition, by taking them through the relevant approval processes.

This video illustrates collective leadership in action.

It highlights the innovative work of DCU's Institute of Education to equip student teachers with the skills to nurture a passion for STEM in their future students such as the STEM Teacher Internship Programme (STint), the Naughton Family Chair in STEM Education, and research on game-based learning.

Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise (ICE)

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Innovation, Creativity & Enterprise (ICE) is the DCU inclusive concept of innovation, which encompasses Innovation, Creativity and Enterprise.

ICE aims to move away from the over-association of ‘innovation’ with research commercialisation and STEM areas and to ensure that the innovation, creativity and enterprise taking place across the University and in all disciplines, is valued and visible.

The DCU ICE initiati8ve provides a locus to showcase and make visible the myriad activities across the University, which fall into this area.

A major focus of ICE is to support student enterprise activities for students from all faculties and programmes, growing the concepts of ‘innovation’, ‘creativity’ and ‘enterprise’ amongst all students from all programmes but also providing a pathway for them to turn ideas into products and services.

In this video, Dr Ciarán Dunne, Director of Transversal Skill, talks about how DCU strives to 'promote authentic opportunities for our students to shape, refine and grow thier creative ideas into impactful and scalable innovations'.

Sustainable Development

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DCU seeks to embed a sustainability ethos that will underpin all our activities and ensure sustainability in all areas of our operation – Economic, Climate, Social, Financial and Staffing.

We appreciate how critical it is to build ESG capacity across all areas of the University, and this will inform all strategic activity we conduct and will become embedded in the DCU psyche.

This video talks about the development of the U on DCU's Glasnevin campus, which was opened in 2018. Thousands of students use the centre every day, and it's also home to the 130 clubs and societies, the Student Leadership and Life Skills Centre, and a host of events.

Agility

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Agility is the ability of an organization to renew itself, adapt, change quickly, and succeed in a rapidly changing, ambiguous, turbulent environment.

Notwithstanding our resilient response to the challenges of the pandemic, we recognise that change and uncertainty have become enduring forces and we wish to position the University to be better able to anticipate and flourish in adverse circumstances, rather than to be reactive and taken unawares.

Therefore a key characteristic going forward will be scenario planning and modelling so that we continue to be aware of and well placed to manage potential challenges.