2007 Press Releases

26 Jan 2007

UCC selected by the Carnegie Foundation for New Programme to Improve Graduate Education



The Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) has selected 87 higher education institutions or networks of institutions around the world to participate in a program to improve undergraduate and graduate education.  University College Cork (UCC) is proud to announce that it is one of the institutions selected under the Graduate Education theme, and that UCC has been invited to act as the co-ordinating institution for this theme.

In welcoming UCC's nomination as co-ordinating institution for the CASTL Graduate Education theme, Professor John O'Halloran, Chair of UCC's Academic Council's Graduate Studies Committee said:  "The next three years will be a crucial period for the development of graduate education in UCC and in Ireland, given the government's target to double graduate enrolment within the next decade. Dr. Alan Kelly, Dean of Graduate studies added: UCC is particularly pleased to be involved in this important international program at this key period, and is determined to optimise the opportunities provided by collaborating with these prestigious international institutions".

The CASTL Institutional Leadership Program is a three year partnership between the Carnegie Foundation and selected colleges, universities and higher education organisations with a strong commitment to the careful examination of teaching and learning.  Participants were selected for their ability and influence to work in 12 areas, ranging from assessment and accountability to undergraduate research and graduate education.  

"Through this program, Carnegie acknowledges the important contributions of institutional leaders and advocates, while encouraging the development of new forms and structures supporting scholarly investigation into teaching and learning" said CASTL director, Richard Gale.

All selected institutions have developed and implemented innovative strategies to strengthen teaching and improve student learning in their own campuses.  Through participation in the Carnegie program, they will be expected to collaborate with other institutions to further examine that work and to expand activities in these same areas.

The other institutions involved in the Graduate Education theme are:

  • The Association of American Geographers
  • Central European University, Budapest
  • Center for the Integration of Research and Teaching and Learning co-ordinated by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. (The CIRTL network includes Howard University, Washington DC; Michigan State University; Penn State University; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Wisconsin at Madison)
  • Howard University, Washington DC
  • Michigan State University
  • Rutgers University, New Jersey.
The UCC co-ordinating team for this project consists of Professor John O'Halloran, Chair of the Academic Council Graduate Studies Committee; Professor Peter Kennedy, Vice-President for Research Policy; Dr Alan Kelly, Dean of Graduate Studies;  Dr. Norma Ryan, Director of Quality Promotion; Dr. Bettie Higgs and Marian McCarthy, Ionad Bairre (The Teaching and Learning Centre) and Professor Áine Hyland (chair), former Vice-President and Professor of Education.

(Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an Act of the (US) Congress, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research centre with a primary mission "to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of the teacher."  The Foundation, located in Stanford, California, fulfils this mission through its contribution to improvements in education policy and practice).

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