Global focus in UCC strategic plan

24 May 2013

Increasing foreign direct investment and job creation, as well as a surge in attracting international students, lie among the many benefits outlined in UCC’s strategic plan, launched Friday 24 May 2013.

Sustaining Excellence 2013-2017 is distinctly student-orientated and heralds good news far beyond the university walls. Launched by Dr Michael Murphy, President of UCC, Sustaining Excellence identifies the pathways over the next five years that will continue to propel UCC on the global stage, bringing with it multiple educational, cultural, social and economic benefits.

Dr Murphy said his vision was for UCC “to be a world-class university connecting our region to the Globe”. He highlighted that UCC is set to double the annual number of high potential start-ups from UCC research to a total of 20 companies and 150 jobs by 2017. Increasing non-Exchequer income to 50% of total income, as well as increasing annual research income to €90 million, are also among the targets. The plan acknowledges that international education is a national strategic imperative, committing UCC to ensuring international students make up over 17% of the student population during the next five years. Sustaining Excellence also seeks to meet the needs of the ‘Knowledge Society’ by increasing students studying at postgraduate level from the current 22% to 30% and to continue to graduate in excess of 250 PhD graduates annually.

Additional steps include:

• Strengthening research and job creation by enhancing technology transfer and commercialisation, including developing a Healthcare and Technology Innovation Cluster, delivering the National Health Innovation Hub and further developing the Ignite Graduate Business Innovation Centre. Participation in the Irish Maritime and Energy Resource Cluster (IMERC), together with Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and the Irish Naval Service, will deliver innovation and jobs in the maritime and energy domains. UCC will continue to play a leadership role in the development of the Cork Science and Innovation Park in cooperation with Cork County Council, Cork City Council, CIT, the IDA and Enterprise Ireland.
• Continuing to pursue excellence in teaching, learning and the student experience; building a state-of-the-art student “hub” to support student learning and employability skills development; providing opportunities in each programme for student work placements and delivering teaching qualification programmes to greater numbers of staff.
• Building a more cohesive regional learning cluster by deepening partnership with CIT and other education partners to promote more opportunities for students to transfer between institutions, to minimise overlaps between programmes, in pursuit of better value for the taxpayer, and to enable greater joint development of new programmes. UCC will continue to engage proactively at a national level to increase the capacity of the Irish higher education system to thrive on a global scale.
• Strengthening integration of research, teaching and learning by maximising opportunities for students to participate in research throughout their undergraduate studies and through the greater engagement of researchers in teaching.
• Developing greater opportunities for part-time and flexible learning by investing in open access Technology Enhanced Learning, allowing a blend of distance and on-campus learning.
• Establishing an innovative business school with expertise in identified niche areas.
• Continuing to internationalise actively.

Dr Murphy further remarked:

“In this document, we set out our strategic agenda for the next five years, clearly demonstrating our confidence and ambition as a strong European university. We are mindful of current straitened economic times. That has only strengthened our resolve to ensure that when circumstances improve we will emerge stronger and better able to compete in a dynamic international marketplace. I am also cognisant that this will be a period of major transition in Irish higher education, as the National Strategy for Higher education becomes a reality. UCC is fully committed to playing its role in leading and shaping this important national agenda”.

Highlighting that UCC’s continued success has its roots in previous plans, Dr Murphy reflected on successes delivered since the previous launch in 2009, despite challenging economic circumstances:

• UCC is now ranked in the top 2% of universities worldwide (QS World Rankings 2012), and is also ranked among the world’s top 200 institutions for ten of its subject areas, with Modern Languages, Law and Biological Sciences ranked in the top 100 (QS World Rankings by Subject 2013). It is also Ireland’s first five star university (QS Stars 2011).
• UCC’s annual research investment reached €79m in 2012 while research funding from EU sources has increased by over 200% in the two years to 2012. In the five years to 2012, the number of citations per publication has grown by 30%. UCC is poised to play an essential role in Science Foundation Ireland’s largest joint state/industry research investment in Irish history (€300m), leading four of the seven centres involved and co-leading a fifth, while partnering the remaining two. 
• In 2012, a comparative survey of 209,000 international students from 238 universities globally, undertaken by the independent International Graduate Insight Group, ranked UCC’s sport’s facilities, international office, IT services and graduate studies as first in Ireland, while UCC’s International Office and Careers and Work Placement Service were ranked in the top three globally. UCC was also voted the safest campus in Ireland and one of the safest in the world.
• According to HEA data in 2012, UCC is the leading Irish higher education institution for social inclusion and ‘equity of access’ with a greater number of students from under-represented groups studying at UCC than in any other Irish higher education institution.
• The student population now includes 3,000 international students from over 100 countries while a third of UCC staff is from overseas.
• The percentage of graduates in employment or further study at 91% in 2011 is above average for the sector, and UCC graduate employment rates are now reflective of 2006 rates for both undergraduates and postgraduates.  80% of UCC’s undergraduate programmes now include work or international placement and new business and job creation activities have increased significantly. The Ignite Graduate Business Innovation Centre has seen 27 graduate businesses established. Since 2009, nine high-potential start-up companies providing 60 jobs were established from UCC’s investment in research.
• New international strategic alliances partners include Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, the Allianze University College of Medical Sciences (AUCMS), Malaysia and Shanghai University while new national alliances have been established with the Irish Management Institute, Teagasc and the Irish Naval Service.
• UCC also reaffirmed its standing as the world’s first Green Flag campus in April 2013, a world first in itself for the prestigious international award programme run by the Foundation of Environmental Education and An Taisce. UCC is also ranked among the top three universities in the world for environment-friendly university management in the UI Greenmetric World University Rankings (2012), and second among urban universities. It also became the first university in the world to achieve certification to the ISO 50001 standard for energy management (2011).
• Building projects completed include the €100m Western Gateway building, the €50m extension of the Tyndall National Institute and the €15 million extension to the sports facilities at the Mardyke, providing UCC with a world-class sports centre at its central campus location.

Dr Murphy further commented: “When our students leave our gates for the last time, they are work ready and world ready, joining our alumni across the globe and shaping the world around us”.

Sustaining Excellence 2013-2017 was developed following an extensive process of internal and external consultation and will shortly be available at http://www.ucc.ie/en/strategicplanning/