Consistently topping our league table for five years in a row, combined with a
forward-thinking approach to academic life, has won Trinity College Dublin
The Sunday Times University of the Year award for 2007.
Ireland’s oldest university, inaugurated in 1592, wins this coveted award
after 12 months that have witnessed the biggest reorganisation, and
long-needed simplification, of the college’s haphazard academic structure.
It will allow TCD to be more agile, particularly in course provision.
So unruly was its bureaucracy that it is only now standardising the academic
year across all courses, and in 2009 a semester system will be introduced.
New courses will start in 2008 across a range of disciplines such as business
studies and Polish or Spanish. Other options will include molecular medicine
in science, and film studies and music. Further flexible combinations will
follow.
Thanks to consistent excellence in teaching and research Trinity is the
highest-ranked Irish university, at 78, in The Times Higher Education
Supplement’s world league table.
Our award recognises Trinity for not being afraid to innovate. It has cleverly
used the internet to vastly enhance first-year induction — the process
starts once a student accepts an offer. The vibrant city centre campus has
become one of Ireland’s most environmentally responsible. The university
recycles half its waste and is using wind power to generate much of its
electricity.
Student facilities have been greatly improved. A €30m indoor sports
centre, partly funded by a contribution from each registration fee, has just
opened. The 12,939 full-time and 2,023 part-time students will have access
to personal trainers at €9 an hour, and free saunas. The upgraded
sports provision will be augmented by a new student centre, with bars and
cafes.
The college hosts Europe’s largest private party — the Trinity ball — each
year.
Trinity’s contribution to the greater good ranges from university researchers
developing the first effective cure for leprosy in the 1950s to
collaboration on the production of the nicotine patch. Great writers such as
Swift, Beckett, Wilde and even Bram Stoker all graced the cobblestone
squares of the 40-acre campus in the heart of Dublin.
The academic calibre of the current intake, based on Leaving Certificate
results, is easily the highest of the republic’s seven universities. And
good applicants translate into bright graduates. Alumni have included three
Irish presidents — Douglas Hyde, Mary Robinson and Mary McAleese — and, from
the music world, U2 manager Paul McGuinness and singer Chris de Burgh. The
heads of the three largest Irish quoted stocks — CRH, the building group,
Allied Irish Bank and Bank of Ireland — are also all graduates.
TCD is also the country’s most cosmopolitan campus. A third of its students
are 23 or over and one in seven is from overseas. The university aims to
double its number of postgraduate students in the next five years, says
chief academic Colm Kearney, a professor of international business.
The university attracts 500,000 tourists a year, many to see priceless
collections that include the Book of Kells, an ancient transcription of the
Gospels. Old traditions die hard — the game of marbles held each May, on
Trinity Monday, outside the college chapel for new fellows contrasts with a
21st-century deal with Google to supply all TCD freshers with a lifetime
e-mail address, among other services.
The college has faced criticism for elitism, however. Third-level
participation in the area surrounding Trinity remains among the country’s
worst, despite Kearney stating that TCD wanted to expand its outreach.
Although 15% of places are reserved for people from nontraditional
backgrounds, only 4% of Trinity undergraduates enter without achieving the
standard Leaving Certificate points because they come from disadvantaged
backgrounds.
However, to give back to the community, up to 400 staff, students and
graduates each year have offered free tuition over the past two decades to
5,000 students at the nearby Pearse Street and Ringsend schools.
On the research side, Trinity College Dublin is a hive of intellectual
activity. Today its 705 academics attract on average €82,270 each in
research funding — or just over €58m last year — triple the
amount of 10 years ago.
Birthplace of companies such as Nasdaq-quoted Iona Technologies, the
university’s pace of spinning out companies and patents is accelerating. It
has deals to collaborate further with Queen’s in Belfast, University College
Dublin, the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and NUI, Galway in projects
ranging from co-operation in education to medical, biomedical and
bioengineering research to expanding study of the humanities.
The new €29m Naughton Institute houses 150 researchers exploring
nanotechnology applications in biotechnology and information technology.
Unusually, its science gallery will be open to the public daily from early
next year, to promote interest in the area.
Dr John Hegarty, an engineer who was elected provost at TCD six years ago on a
reform ticket, has even seen the disused stables of his official house on
campus renovated to form a ¤1.5m Irish art research centre. Hegarty says:
“Trinity offers an environment for learning and development that combines
the best of the old with the most exciting of the new.”
But it’s not all hard commerce and science. Trinity researcher Dr Anil Kokaram
won an Oscar in February for visual effects software used in entertainment
products.
The research has a social role too. Some projects involve developing policies
to address issues raised by the influx of people into Ireland, and there is
a €24m programme aimed at making Ireland more child-friendly. TCD has
also started Ireland’s first university course for people with an
intellectual disability.
One place where Trinity has lost its top mantle in Ireland, however, is in
results. A falling number, 67%, of its students got a first or a 2:1.
University College Cork, today’s runner-up, overtook it with 70% of students
achieving a top grade last year.
This was one of the factors in the 162-year-old Cork institution being
shortlisted for the award. The largest university outside Dublin, it claimed
second place outright while University College Dublin, our University of the
Year in 2006, slipped to third.
A strong academic performance, high student satisfaction and enhancement of
courses at the 35-year-old Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology won it our
Institute of Technology of the Year award. It moved up three places to ninth
in today’s league table.
With five campuses along the western seaboard, it is Ireland’s most
geographically dispersed third-level institution but has some of the
country’s best student facilities.
An increasing number, 63%, of Galway-Mayo’s degree students achieved a first
or 2:1 last year, better than several universities and among the top
performances of all third-level institutes in Ireland. Its completion rate
has also improved dramatically to well above average for the sector.
Galway-Mayo is introducing the republic’s largest new course portfolio this
year and next, which will push student numbers close to 6,000. Even so, the
377 teaching staff retain the personal touch. Patrick Bonner, students’
union vice-president and welfare officer, says: “It has a very friendly
atmosphere.”
Letterkenny Institute of Technology was jointly shortlisted for the award. The
improvement in the academic calibre of its intake, hugely improved academic
performance and research propelled it up two places to 19th, its highest
finish yet on our league table. Letterkenny also has the country’s best
record for providing third-level education to disadvantaged students.
The younger Institute of Technology, Tallaght was shortlisted in recognition
of the excellence it has achieved in research, teaching and widening
opportunity in the 15 years since it was founded. It moved up seven places
on the league table to 13th.
Comparing grades is always a problem. The use of external examiners is a small attempt to provide a comparative reference. All college bound students sit the state exams. At this stage I believe the Trinity students are ahead of the Cork students. I think the grades at graduation depend on the students and the examiners. With Cork reporting 70% and Trinity reporting 67% I would first suspect the quality of examination rather than the quality of the students.
This should not be an arguement for the dreaded bell curve. Some years do have more brilliant students than others. Students should not suffer because they shared their year with Hamilton or Einstein.
Sam Darby, Boston, USA
Absolutely agree. Given that the main driver of results is internal continuous assessment, with external examiners having a minimal oversight of finals, there is little merit in such an approach.
Grade degradation is inevitable if it is made the basis of league tables. The only worthwhile approach is grading on a percentile curve: e.g. the top 10% get a first, the next 10% a 2:1, 15% a 2:2, 50% a 3 and the rest fail to matriculate in that year.
This is roughly the range of results TCD was awarding in the Moderatorships in the early 1970s. A lot of degradation has occurred if 67% now get a first or 2:1.
Paul cronin, Tang, Ireland
I wish to comment on the following statement: 'One place where Trinity has lost its top mantle in Ireland, however, is in results. A falling number, 67%, of its students got a first or a 2:1. University College Cork, today’s runner-up, overtook it with 70% of students achieving a top grade last year'.
A high level of firsts or upper seconds is no indication of quality (although to the superficial it may seem so). Rather, is the reverse the case: a first or II.1 from a university where such an achievement is difficult is worth far more than an equivalent mark from a university where it is easy. But this merely shows the inherent flaws in attempting to measure complex situations with journalistic soundbites, however popular that might be.
Dr Thomas McCarthy, Toronto, Canada