UCC students returning to their families this Christmas will receive free antigen tests, as the university commences a programme supported by the Department of Higher Education, Research, Innovation & Science.  

Under the programme UCC’s 23,000 students will receive 5 free antigen tests. UCC ran the most successful antigen testing system in the higher education sector recently, with 1650 students & staff participating in the ongoing Unicov project. 

Changing places was the brainchild of the late Irish woman and advocate of people with disabilities, Loretto Lamb, along with occupational therapist, Joyce Burns. Changing places allow families, carers and people with complex disabilities to manage their daily occupations of self-care and gives them the opportunity to engage in wider community activities with dignity.  The equipment in a Changing Places facility goes beyond what is available in a standard accessible toilet which often does not meet the needs of all people with complex disabilities. 

Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD visited UCC this week.

The Minister met with students and staff and viewed the Old College Bar which has been transformed into the Calm Zone, a dedicated space of respite and calm for students, and in particular students on the autism spectrum.

In a session tailored for experts in lifelong learning across Ireland and Europe the MicroCreds HCI Pillar 3 funded programme team outlined the development of the national framework for ECTS bearing, quality assured microcredentials.

Dr Lynn Ramsey – IUA Programme Lead headed an insightful panel discussion with input from all seven IUA universities.   The panel explored universal vision for micro-credentials which was the first opportunity to formally engage with the wider academic community, policy makers, funders, and other sectoral bodies.

The successful launch will be followed by local events across units led by our own Project Lead – Mags Arnold m.arnold@ucc.ie

UCC today celebrated its recent Athena SWAN award successes, recognising the University’s commitment to promoting good practice and advancing gender equality in higher education.

At a virtual ceremony, Minister Simon Harris congratulated awardees to celebrate the advancement of equality in higher education.

Three awards cycles were included in the ceremony, with UCC receiving nine awards, including the Institutional Bronze award (awarded in 2019).

UCC President John O’ Halloran has unveiled the UCC Rainbow Walkway on campus to mark National Coming Out Day on October 11th and as part of UCC Community Week.

The UCC Rainbow Walkway has been installed to celebrate and recognise the diversity of the UCC community and to express UCC’s firm commitment to the creation of a campus that is inclusive, where the whole of the UCC community can feel a sense of welcome and belonging.

Career Services held their virtual fair in October and the data from this showed over 6,000 1:1 chats between students and employers and over 25,000 individual chat messages. 

The UCC EmployAgility Award is a professional skills development programme, and demonstrates that you have engaged in, and developed professional skills through extra-curricular activities and work experience, all of which will help you to stand out from the crowd when applying for graduate roles and internships. 

The €1m award from the Higher Education Authority recognises the impact of the university’s innovative work in the field of inclusive education, and its efforts to open higher education to students with intellectual disabilities. UCC’s achievements in challenging deficit-focused perceptions of people with intellectual disabilities were profiled in an Impact Case Study reviewed by a panel of international experts. The Certificate in Contemporary Living was established as a pilot project supported by the Brothers of Charity, Cope Foundation and Enable Ireland. It was designed to meet the needs for non-segregated, inclusive post-secondary education for people with intellectual disabilities and was recognised as a model of good practice.

University College Cork’s Bystander Intervention programme will today launch a series of audio-visual learning materials to Higher Education Institutes (HEIs) nationwide to raise awareness around active bystanders and sexual assault.

The materials include a fifteen-minute starter video explaining key concepts on how to be a pro-social bystander, intervening in unsafe situations, what happens when consent falls through, and how students can do their bit to make college campuses and local communities safer for everyone. The launch marked the new Bystander Intervention learning packages being offered to third-level institutions. HEIs are being offered the ability to upload and deliver the training through their own institutional learning platforms.

The project includes student ambassadors from a range of degree programmes as well Professor Louise Crowley, Director of Bystander Intervention in UCC, and Dr Clíonadh O’Keeffe, the Bystander Intervention Support Officer in UCC. The overarching aim of this wide release is to make students more aware of sexual assault and how they can stop it before a situation occurs.

UniCoV is a multi-site, randomised controlled clinical study led by the National University of Ireland Galway (NUIG) in partnership with Trinity College Dublin (TCD), University College Dublin (UCD) and University College Cork (UCC). Funded by Science Foundation Ireland, the four universities and the HSE and supported by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research Innovation and Science and Department of Health, UniCoV will further develop and apply testing, screening and surveillance strategies, proven tools used by Public Health to assist with early warning systems for disease, in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Ireland.

We are delighted to announce that the much cherished Old College Bar at UCC has been transformed into dedicated space of respite and calm for students, and in particular students on the autism spectrum.

The UCC Calm Zone, designed as part of the Autism Friendly University (AFU) initiative, will feature in the upcoming Venice Architecture Biennale in a show titled “Autistic Imaginaries of Architectural Space'', which showcases architecture through the lens of autism. The Calm Zone has been recognised as an example of architecture that has incorporated the principles of autism-friendly design as outlined in the ASPECTSS Design Index. 

UCC won the Best Student Experience Award at the Education Awards in 2020 and 2021.  A submission is being prepared for the 2022 entry in this category.  UCC won other others in 2021 also see here

Successful outcomes within UCC's Graduate Attributes Programme in 2020 are testament to a dedicated and talented team who engage in radical and transformative campus-wide collaboration. The successful integration of the GAP initiatives has been bolstered across the university with more than 30 teams collaborating on projects that will support and equip students and graduates with the necessary attributes, skills and values as they transition through the entire student life-cycle.

The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD and the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD today announced that UCC will receive funding of €420,000 to deliver an upskilling programme for teachers at post-primary level to address a shortage in Spanish teachers nationally identified in the Teacher Supply Action Plan.

UCC today announced a partnership project with Microsoft. This project will harness the power of Microsoft Teams and LinkedIn Learning to support final year/penultimate year students build up work-ready skills and attributes and will explore opportunities to apply technology to support students as they transition out of university into professional environments or further study.

241 free and subsidised places will be made available at UCC following the award of €1.8million under the new Jobs Stimulus Package announced by Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science Simon Harris TD.

Professor Stephen Byrne has been appointed as Interim Registrar of University College Cork, effective from 1st November 2020.

Stephen joined UCC in 2004 and was subsequently appointed to the Chair of Clinical Pharmacy Practice and Head of the School of Pharmacy in October 2013. For the last two years, Stephen has held the position of Dean of Undergraduate Studies, UCC and has co-led Priorities 2 and 5 of UCC’s Academic Strategy, amongst being an active member of several university committees including, Academic Council, Academic Board, ACRIC and AC Learning and Teaching.

The Disability Support Service (DSS) Mentoring Programme has been awarded funding as part of the Ability to Work Fund from RETHINK Ireland. 

UCC has been awarded €14.4 million under Pillar 3 of the Human Capital Initiative Programme for new projects on innovation and agility in Higher Education to meet priority skills needs across Ireland’s economy.

You are probably used to hearing “what are you studying”? but not too many ask “how are you learning”? How you think about your learning and the strategies you use are really important for your study success. 

Find out about Growth mindset in the new video from the Graduate Attributes Programme at UCC https://youtu.be/nxNHWD_JfqI

Thank you to Dr. Eithne Hunt for her amazing contribution to this video script.

UCC has been awarded €5.6 million for more than 700 additional places on six new HDip and PG Dip courses, across all four Colleges, under Pillar 1 of the Human Capital Initiative Programme. 

We are delighted to launch a new short course on UCC's Academic Strategy's Connected Curriculum, which is freely available to all staff. This course aims to provide useful information about the Connected Curriculum and to help staff to identify how this is relevant to their own activities. 

UCC's Bystander intervention module, first piloted in 2016/17 has become sector-leading approach to addressing the issue of sexual harassment and violence across Irish HEIs.

UCC has been awarded its second Athena SWAN Bronze Award by Advance HE for its commitment to gender diversity. The School of Public Health was also recognised for its commitment to advancing gender equality and was awarded a departmental Athena SWAN Bronze award.

Meet Roisin, Raj, Ciara and Joe from UCC, who tell us what attributes and values they are developing throughout their journey in UCC. Each student tells us more about each attribute and value and how these are enabling them to develop life wide and life long skills. Watch here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zy_2hXxSLB

Cormac Harris and Alan O’Sullivan, winners of the 56th BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition, visited UCC today to present their project on “A statistical investigation into the prevalence of gender stereotyping in 5-7 year olds and the development of an initiative to combat gender bias”.

On Thursday, February 20th 2020, in the Ballsbridge Hotel in Dublin, University College Cork were awarded the institution offering the Best Student Experience in Ireland.

On Friday 14 February 2020, Professor John O'Halloran, Registrar and Vice-President, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on behalf of UCC with Coláiste na Rinne, Co. Phort Láirge.

The Graduate Attributes Programme was proud to support a fantastic student-led and student-focused event this week.

Today, UCC Graduate Attributes Programme launched their showcase of the offices and services of the Student Experience.

Quercus Scholars met Apple's CEO Tim Cook at an event celebrating 40 Years of Apple's contribution to Ireland which was held in Dublin on Monday 20th January, 2020.

After twenty years located at the houses at Brighton Villas on the Western Road, on the 16th December 2019 UCC Career Services completed a permanent transition to their new central campus location in The Hub Building.

Review of the year 2019. This review illustrates the enthusiasm with which our Graduate Attributes have been embraced and, more importantly, the opportunities that have been seized by staff and students in UCC to achieve remarkable things in 2019.

The new hub building, designed by architects O’Donnell and Tuomey, opened its doors to students on 6^th January 2020, ahead of the upcoming academic term.

We are delighted to announce the speakers for this year's Lecture Series. 

UCC has been awarded €300,000 for an additional 30 places on its full-time undergradaute Engineering degree programme under Pillar 2 of the Human Capital Initiative. 

The first event to take place in the new hub building was the Annual Christmas Coffee Morning hosted by the Deputy President & Registrar.

For the third year running UCC has been ranked as the 9th most sustainable university in the world, and the most sustainable university in Ireland, by the UI GreenMetric World University Rankings. These rankings provide the results of online survey regarding the current condition and policies related to Green Campus and Sustainability in the Universities all over the world.

Here the Quercus Scholars and their guests enjoyed a sit down meal followed by the presentation of their Sterling Silver Acorn pins. The Creative & Performing Arts Scholars performed at the end of the night and received a standing ovation for their efforts. 

Deputy President & Registrar, Prof. John O'Halloran, delivered the introductory address on the occasion of the conferring of the Degree of Doctor of Law, honoris causa, on David Donoghue in the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland. 

Six thousand prospective students visited UCC on Saturday 12th October for the University’s Open Day. Held every year, the Open Day provides a wonderful opportunity to showcase all that makes UCC a great place to study.

UCC Graduate Recruitment Fair 2019 took place on Wednesday 9th October 2019 in the Mardyke Arena. This is the largest recruitment event of the year and is hosted by UCC Career Services. This year 114 graduate employers were available to meet with students and to offer career advice and job opportunities.

The Quercus Talented Students Programme, sponsored by Ford, has released a new set of Promotional Videos, featuring Quercus Scholars across the programme strands of Active Citizenship; Creative & Performing Arts; Innovation/Entrepreneurship; and Sports. 

University College Cork (UCC) today launched the Graduate Attributes Programme which will advance the development of students’ academic, specialist and technical competencies, equipping them with transferrable skills that can be applied in life-wide contexts. 

Professor John O’Halloran, Deputy President and Registrar UCC attended Future University in Egypt (FUE) as honorary speaker at the inaugural graduation ceremony of the graduates of the new pharmacy degree that was established under the 2014 FUE-UCC Cooperation agreement.   

On Friday 20th September students and staff of UCC convened in the Quad in support of the Global Strike for Climate. Prof Patrick O'Shea, president of UCC, dropped the Green Flag to half-mast in recognition of the fact that, although we are proud of our environmental achievements, there is more to be done.

Today, the 2020 QS Graduate Employability Rankings were released and QS Quacquarelli Symonds have named the world's top 500 universities for nurturing graduate employability. UCC has climbed since last year from being in the 301-500 band to the 250-300 band.

On Friday 6th of September, we welcomed the 6th intake of Quercus Scholars to UCC with a day long induction event hosted at Distillery House.  

Paul O'Donovan and Ronan Byrne, both Quercus Sports Scholars, have achieved success at the Rowing World Championships, which took place in Linz, Austria from August 25th to September 1st. Ronan has also succeeded in winning Gold at the European U23 Rowing Championships, which took place in Greece from the 5th-8th of September. 

REACT (Responding to Excessive Consumption of Alcohol in Third Level)  is a UCC led, joint initiative between the Union of Students in Ireland (USI), the Irish Student Health Association (ISHA) and UCC Health Matters. 

Today, UCC signed an agreement with Kerry Education and Training Board (Kerry ETB) that will see both institutions working together to enhance opportunities for and engagement in outdoor education and training at Cappanalea, The National Centre for Outdoor Education and Training, which is based at Oulagh West, Caragh Lake, Killorglin, Co. Kerry.

UCC is the lead on the capacity building work package of the Erasmus funded UniGov project (Improving Governance Practices and Palestinian Higher Education Institutions) including all training activities such as designing the training modules and supervise the online, face-to-face training as well as the study visits activities.

Congratulations to the Dentistry Class of 2019 on your examination results.

The SOAR Project Travellers in Education assembly -  Supporting Travellers in 2nd Level Education: Progress through Partnership sees key stakeholders working together to explore how best to support Travellers in second level education in Cork and Kerry.

The First Student Affairs Ireland Summit took place in UCC on the 11^th and 12^th of June. More than 400 delegates attended workshops and presentations on topics including included Student Success: Everybody's Business and Critical Incidents and Crisis Management.

Professor John O’Halloran presented certificates to the inaugural Puttnam Scholars on Friday 7th June.

During his visit he visited the ERI Beaufort Building, the Headquarters of the SFI MaREI Centre to discuss further potential areas for collaboration and build upon recent success that sees the MaREI Centre partnering in the Australian Blue Economy Co-operative Research Centre (BE-CRC), led by the University of Tasmania.

Deputy President & Registrar, Professor John O'Halloran, Irish Rugby, UCC Sport and Morgan Buckley, Director of Sport & Physical Activity at UCC today made a presentation to U20 rugby star John Hodnett, 1st Sports Studies & Physical Education student and Quercus scholar as he heads to Argentina to represent Ireland in the U20 Rugby World Cup next month.

Deputy President & Registrar Professor John O'Halloran welcomed over 500 students, teachers and parents to the Devere Hall today, where he officiated at the 2019 BFGtoEU Graduation Ceremony, and made a presentation to guest speaker Rob Heffernan. 

Sara Ahmed is a British-Australian scholar whose area of study includes the intersection of feminist theory, lesbian feminism, queer theory, critical race theory and postcolonialism, gave a presentation at UCC on May 16th on Closing the Door: Complaint as Diversity Work.

The Deputy President and Registrar Professor John O'Halloran has been a jury panel member for the L’Oréal-UNESCO UK & Ireland For Women in Science National Fellowships Programme for many years. 

The Deputy President and Registrar addressed the 7th ASEF Rectors’ Conference and Students’ Forum (ARC7) in Bucharest on 13th April 2019.  The conference theme was “Higher Education Taking Action Towards the Sustainable Development Goals: Perspectives from Asia and Europe” and Professor O’Halloran was invited to present at a working group on “Taking Action at Home: SDGs as Core Pillars of University Governance”.  

The Graduate Studies Office is proud to announce the launch of its newly structured and designed website.

An online Academic Policy Portal has been launched to provide a single location for accessing the full range of academic policies at UCC.

Congratulations to Quercus Innovation/Entrepreneurship Scholar, Mary Murphy, who was named the winner of the 2019 UCC Student Entrepreneur of the Year.

The Deputy President and Registrar met with Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation Heather Humphreys today as she visited the Tyndall National Institute at UCC to review Disruptive Technology Innovation Funding (DTIF) projects worth over €20 million and to welcome other significant funding wins at one of Europe’s leading technology research Institutes. 

UCC played host to the 2019 Annual International Workshop on UI GreenMetrics which addressed the theme of “Sustainable University in a Changing World: Lessons, Challenges and Opportunities.”

UCC Societies were the biggest winners at this year’s Board of Irish College Societies (BICS) Awards taking home a whopping four awards - more than any other college or institute in Ireland.

FINTECHNEXT, a financial technology research collaboration project between UCC, Fexco and Science Foundation Ireland, was launched today by Paschal Donohue, Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform at Fexco Head Office in Killorglin, Co. Kerry.

UCC’s top sports stars were honoured at the Sports Star Awards 2018/2019 in the River Lee Hotel on Tuesday 9th April, with personalities from the world of sport, coaches, parents, students, UCC Clubs Executive and UCC staff in attendance.

Dion Davis, a second year Professional Masters in Education (PME) student, was nominated by Olive Byrne, Head of Access & Participation, to speak at the launch of “Delivering for Ireland, An Impact Assessment of Irish Universities”. This is the first report by the Irish Universities Association on the role universities play in the economy and society, launched today at the Convention Centre Dublin.

University College Cork is placed 21st in the world in Times Higher Education’s (THE) University Impact Rankings 2019.

Congratulations to Ireland who were crowned U20 Six Nations Grand Slam Champions on Friday 15th March. The team included Quercus Sports Scholar, John Hodnett, in the number 8 position. 

Professor John O’ Halloran, Deputy President and Registrar presented 426 students with 531 UCC Works Awards and Digital Badges at a packed ceremony in Devere Hall on the 20^th March, 2019.

Dónal Óg Cusack was in UCC recently to launch the LGBT+ Allies scheme for staff. We were delighted to welcome him to UCC and took the opportunity to present him with a copy of our recently launched Sports Strategy Document.

Today, University College Cork launched a new Sports Strategy. This ambitios four-year strategy was launched by Olympic rowing hero Paul O’Donovan and athlete Mary Fitzgerald, who recently won three gold medals at the 2019 IWAS World Games.

UCC have won three major sporting cups over the past month. The Collingwood Cup, The Sigerson Cup and The Fitzgibbon Cup.

Quercus Sports' Scholar, Mary Fitzgerald, won 3 gold medals at the 2019 IWAS World Games in the United Arab Emirates.

Today, University College Cork's first every Academic Strategy was launched by Deputy President & Registrar, Professor John O'Halloran. The new strategy aims to transform the UCC learning experience and has, at its heart, a Connected Curriculum.

UCC has been shortlisted in five categories for the Education Awards 2019, which are part of the Business River network solution.

This year's Quercus Gala took place in the Aula Maxima on November 28th, 2018. 

In the recent Athena SWAN Charter awards-cycle, the School of Biological, Earth & Environmental Sciences, School of Chemistry and School of Pharmacy, all received bronze departmental awards for their ongoing commitment to promoting good employment practices for women in science in higher education. 

University College Cork has become the first institution outside of North America to achieve a gold star rating from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education (AASHE). We now join Princeton, Cornell and UC Berkeley in receiving the highest standard, Gold ‘Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System’ (STARS) for excellence in sustainability.