Presentation of QS Five Star Award
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Presentation of QS Five Star Award
15.09.2011
A week after the announcement of UCC’s rise in the QS World Rankings, UCC’s specific designation as a QS Five Star University was recognised at a special awards ceremony held at the University of Copenhagen on September 13th 2011.   The QS Five Star rating - dubbed the Michelin of higher education worldwide - offers a clear global standard that is easily recognisable to millions of mobile students across the globe. UCC’s visibility on the world stage has been greatly enhanced by this elite designation and offers the University a competitive advantage globally.

The ceremony was a key event in the European Association for International Education (EAIE) annual conference which attracts some 4,000 participants from 86 countries and is Europe’s largest international education conference. The QS Five Star Award was accepted on behalf of UCC by Louise Tobin, Director of International Student Recruitment and Strategy who, in her acceptance speech, expressed satisfaction that UCC had performed outstandingly in the evaluation carried out by QS.

"The QS Five Star rating,” commented Tobin “is a huge coup for UCC and provides confirmation of our international standing. At a time when all universities across the world are working hard to attract international students, UCC’s Five Star rating places us in an enviable position. Students across the world are being bombarded with all types of information about various programmes in numerous fields, in all sorts of destinations. Many are experiencing information overload in their quest for a quality education and finding it hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. With this new accolade, UCC will be able to reach out to prospective students in a new way.”

UCC’s performance in the QS Stars evaluation was based on an audit of pre-set criteria that included Research, Employability, Teaching, Infrastructure, Internationalization, Innovation and Engagement. Other universities to receive a Five Star rating in the last year have included University of Cambridge, Harvard University, MIT and Yale. In Copenhagen, UCC was one of only three universities in the world to be presented with the prestigious Five Star award, the others being RMIT Melbourne and KTH Royal Institute of Technology Sweden.

Concludes Tobin: "This rating is sure to yield enormous dividends for UCC and for Cork. We have scored exceptionally well across all categories and it is particularly gratifying to note that we achieved the top score in the internationalisation category.  In national terms we are already punching above our weight in relation to our capacity to attract overseas students. This new award is certain to place UCC as a world-class higher education provider.”

The international student body is an established part of the UCC campus and it links the region to the globe.  Over 2,800 international students enrolled in UCC last year, totalling 14% of the student population. The cosmopolitan mix of nationalities from more than 100 countries across all continents, produce an exciting community of scholars at UCC.

Picture:  Ms Louise Tobin, Director of International Student Recruitment and Strategy accepting QS Five Star Award from Jason Newman, Director, QS.
UCC: Ireland’s first Five Star University (QS Stars 2011)


 



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