CIRTL has a strong research profile and demonstrates academic leadership in the scholarship of teaching and learning. The Centre produces high quality research with regularly published output in leading national and international academic journals and texts. CIRTL is partnered with Access UCC on a nationally funded initiative under the HEA's Programme for Access to Higher Education funding. Internationally CIRTL is currently a partner on three Erasmus+ Capacity Building projects. The CIRTL team have research interests in a broad range of themes related to higher education, including:

• The scholarship of teaching and learning;
• Teaching and learning spaces;
• Staff professional development in teaching and learning in higher education;
• Community based research and learning;
• Assessment;
• Active learning approaches;
• Embedding undergraduate research in the curriculum;
• Universal design for learning;
• Arts based approaches to teaching and learning;
• Disciplinary identity.

We welcome staff and students who may wish to partner with us on these activities. We also provide support and guidance to staff wishing to undertake the own research, whether as part of the MA in T&L, in response to National or institutional funded projects, or in response to an interesting question around student learning. Information on securing ethical approval for your T&L research can be found here. 

2023 Co-Creating Inclusion and Equity in Teaching and Learning

This project is part of CIRTL’s contribution to the Path 4 2023 Inclusive University plan in collaboration with Access UCC and with funding of €241,000 from the Higher Education Authority (HEA). The Path 4 funding supports higher education institutions to deliver innovative measures to improve participation and retention of specific target groups in higher education.

This initiative takes a multi-pronged approach to enact sustainable models of professional development fostering equity-minded inclusive teaching practices that are grounded in universal design and support the participation and success of all UCC learners.

The project team, with Dr Anna Santucci, Dr Bonnie Mullinix and Dr Sharon Ultsch, is working on researching, designing, and implementing models that build long-term, sustainable capacity for institutional change towards these goals. This will culminate in a National Showcase event in early 2024 to share learning from the project and encourage discussion and peer-exchange amongst staff and students.

This includes the following activities.