University College Cork (
UCC) is a
constituent university of the
National University of Ireland, the university is located in
Cork.
The university was founded as a college in 1845 under the original name of
Queen's College, Cork which became
University College, Cork under a charter issued after the
Irish Universities Act, 1908 became law. The
Universities Act, 1997 renamed the university as
National University of Ireland, Cork, and a Ministerial Order of 1998 renamed the university as
University College Cork - National University of Ireland, Cork.
The university was named the "
Sunday Times Irish University of the Year 2003-2004", and again in 2005-2006. In 2007, it jumped 100 places to 286th in the
Times Higher Education Supplement World University Rankings, and advanced again by 60 places to 226th amongst the world's top universities in 2008.
Professor
Michael B. Murphy has been president of the university since February 2007.
| University College Cork |
Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh
|
 |
|
| Motto: | Where Finbarr Taught Let Munster Learn |
| Established: | 1845 |
| President: | Prof Michael B. Murphy |
| Registrar: | Prof Paul Giller |
| Faculty: | 809 (2007) |
| Undergraduates: | 15,732 (2007) |
| Postgraduates: | 3,128 (2007) |
| Location: | Cork, Republic of Ireland |
| Affiliations: | AUA
EUA
NUI IUA UI
Utrecht Network |
| Website: | http://www.ucc.ie |
|
History
Queen's College, Cork was founded by the provisions of an act which enabled
Queen Victoria to endow new colleges for the "Advancement of Learning in Ireland". Under the powers of this act, the three colleges of
Belfast, Cork and
Galway were incorporated on
30 December 1845. The college opened in 1849 with 23 professors and 181 students and a year later became part of the
Queen's University of Ireland.
The original site chosen for the College was particularly appropriate in that it is believed to have had a connection with the
patron saint of Cork,
Saint Finbarr. His monastery and school of learning were close by at Gill Abbey Rock and the mill attached to the monastery is thought to have stood on the bank of the south channel of the
River Lee, which runs through the College lower grounds. This association is also reflected in the College motto "Where Finbarr Taught, Let
Munster Learn" which is also the current university motto.
UCC Quadrangle
On this site (on a hill overlooking the valley of the Lee), the Tudor Gothic quadrangle and early campus buildings were built by
Deane and Woodward. Over the coming years the College gained a standing for excellence in various fields, including mathematics, medicine and the humanities.
The medical buildings were built in stages between 1860 and 1880, and the faculty quickly gained a reputation for the quality of its graduates. The first two women to graduate in medicine in Ireland did so in 1898 (this was notable as it was more than 20 years before women were permitted to sit for medicine at the
University of Oxford).
In the following century, the Irish Universities Act (1908) formed the
National University of Ireland, consisting of the three constituent colleges of Dublin, Cork and Galway, and the college was given the status of a
university college as
University College, Cork. The Universities Act, 1997, made the university college a constituent university of the National University and made the constituent university a full university for all purposes except the awarding of degrees and diplomas which remains the sole remit of the National University.
Today
UCC Student Centre with the O'Rahilly
Arts and
Commerce Building opposite
Today the university has over 17,000 students - of which there are over 14,000 undergraduate degree candidates. This student base is supported by 2,578 staff - of which 764 are faculty. There are 1104 non academic staff and 710 research staff.
The university is one of Ireland's leading research institutes, with the highest research income in the state.[
citation needed] The university's internal research reputation spans all of its faculties where it offers over 120 degree and professional programmes through seven schools and 27 departments. The university had seven faculties in Arts and Celtic Studies, Commerce, Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Law, Medicine, and Science. In recent years,the University has been restructured so that it now has four colleges, Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Science; Business and Law; Medicine and Health and, Science, Engineering and Food Science. UCC is also home to the Irish Institute of Chinese Studies, which allows students to study Chinese culture as well as the language through Arts and Commerce. The department recently won the European Award for Languages 2008.
Student numbers, currently at over 17,000, have increased greatly since the late 1980s, precipitating the expansion of the campus by the acquisition of adjacent buildings and lands. This expansion continues to the present day to meet the needs of an ever growing student population, with the construction of the
Alfred O'Rahilly building, a new Pharmacy building, the Brookfield Health Sciences centre, the extended
Áras na MacLéinn (Devere Hall), the
Lewis Glucksman Gallery,
Experience UCC (Visitors' Centre) and an extension to the
Boole Library - named for the first professor of mathematics at UCC,
George Boole, who developed the
algebra that would later make computer programming possible.
The university has a number of related companies; including:
Cytrea which is involved in
pharmaceutical formulations.
Firecomms an
ICT company concentrating on
optical communications;
Alimentary Health a
biotech healthcare company; and
Optical Metrology Innovations who develop
laser metrology systems.
The college was involved in some controversy in 2006 when one academic,
Professor Des Clarke alleged that the university authorities were guilty of financial mismanagement, and called for a full independent inquiry into governance. The subsequent inquiry found that there was no evidence of financial mismanagement.
Also in 2006, the University re-opened the Crawford Observatory, a structure built in 1880 on the grounds of the university by Sir Howard Grubb. Grubb, son of the Grubb telescope building family in Dublin, designed the observatory and built the astronomical instruments for the structure. The University paid for an extensive restoration and conservation program of the building and the three main telescopes, the Equatorial, the Transit Circle and the Sidereostatic telescope.
In October 2008, the governing body of the university announced that UCC would be the first institution in Ireland to use embryonic stem cells in research.
UCC SU Crest
UCC Students' Union (UCCSU) acts as the representative body of the 17,000 students attending UCC. Each student is automatically a member by virtue of a student levy.
Alumni
Notable Alumni of the University include: actress
Fiona Shaw, novelist
William Wall, politician
Micheál Martin, High Court judge Bryan MacMahon, comedian
Des Bishop, and poets
Thomas McCarthy and
Greg Delanty. Actor
Cillian Murphy and BBC presenter
Graham Norton both attended UCC but did not graduate.
