Dublin City University has been named The Sunday Times Irish University of the Year for 2011. The college took the award for the second time, having last won in 2004.
In today’s University Guide 2011, DCU has moved up to fifth place in the newspaper’s annual league table, which focuses on academic performance, graduate employment and staff-to-student ratio.
The college took the overall title, however, based on this ranking as well as its contribution on a local, national and international level, the quality of the student experience and the overall robustness of the institution. Trinity College Dublin has been named as runner-up in the overall category and, for the eighth successive year, finished on top of the annual league table.
Cork Institute of Technology was named the Institute of Technology of the Year, after climbing two places in the league table to ninth position. The runner-up in that category was Sligo IT, which jumped 10 places to 11th spot in this year’s league.
When it received university status in 1989, DCU was regarded as a soulless campus near the high-rise flats of Ballymun. But now Ireland’s youngest university is recognised for its excellence in research and academia and for its ability to encourage students from disadvantaged families to partake and thrive in third-level education.
Editors of The Sunday Times University Guide, the most-read of its kind in Ireland and the UK, said DCU landed the top prize because its four national research centres attracted €48m in funds last year — a 48% jump in research income — and because of the success of its access programme and strong student satisfaction.
The University of the Year award is not determined solely by academic achievement. If that were the case, Trinity would win every year, just as Oxford or Cambridge would in England. It attracts the highest calibre of entrants in academic terms (a measure the league table rewards above all others) and has the most research income. Instead, the University of the Year prize takes into account issues such as student facilities and the university’s role on the regional, national and international stage.
After millions of euros in investment, DCU students now enjoy facilities usually found in a five-star hotel, such as a 25-metre swimming pool, a sauna, spa pool, 300 student residences, as well as The Helix, Ireland’s largest arts centre.
Its sports facilities were awarded four stars by The Sunday Times, the second-highest ranking.
