University College Cork (UCC; ) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland in Cork, Ireland.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen's Colleges in Belfast, Cork, and Galway. It became University College, Cork, under the Irish Universities Act 1908. The Universities Act 1997 renamed the university National University of Ireland, Cork, and a Ministerial Order of 1998 renamed it University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork,About NUI – Constituent Universities though it continues to be almost universally known as University College Cork.
Amongst other rankings and awards, the university was named Irish University of the Year by The Sunday Times five times, most recently in 2017. In 2015, UCC was named the top-performing university by the European Commission funded U-Multirank system, based on obtaining the highest number of "A" scores (21 out of 28 metrics) among a field of 1200 universities. UCC also became the first university to achieve the ISO 50001 standard in energy management in 2011.
History
Queen's College, Cork, was founded by the provisions of an act which enabled Queen Victoria to endow new colleges for the "Advancement of Learning in Ireland". Under the powers of this act, the three colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway were incorporated on 30 December 1845. Victoria undertook her first official visit to Ireland in August 1849, and briefly visited the new College, where she witnessed a statue in her likeness being hoisted onto a prominent position on the gable end of the Aula Maxima.
The college opened on 30 October 1849, when matriculation and scholarship exams were held determining who would be registered as students. The first lectures were held some days later on 7 November 1849, with 23 professors and 181 students in attendance. Medicine, Arts, and Law were the three founding faculties. A year later the college became part of the Queen's University of Ireland.
The original site chosen for the college was considered appropriate as it was believed to have had a connection with the patron saint of Cork, Saint Finbarr. His monastery and school of learning were close by at Gill Abbey Rock and the mill attached to the monastery is thought to have stood on the bank of the south channel of the River Lee, which runs through the college lower grounds. This association is also reflected in the college motto "Where Finbarr Taught, Let Munster Learn" which is also the university motto.
Adjacent to Gillabbey and overlooking the valley of the river Lee, the site was selected in 1846. The Tudor Gothic quadrangle and early campus buildings were designed and built by Sir Thomas Deane and Benjamin Woodward. Queen's College Cork officially opened its doors in November 1849, with further buildings added later, including the Medical/Windle Building in the 1860s.
National University of Ireland In the following century, the Irish Universities Act 1908 formed the National University of Ireland, consisting of the three constituent colleges of Dublin, Cork and Galway, and the college was given the status of a university college as University College, Cork. The Universities Act, 1997, made the university college a constituent university of the National University and made the constituent university a full university for all purposes except the awarding of degrees and diplomas which remains the sole remit of the National University.
Following Irish independence, the statue of Queen Victoria which remained on the top of a prominent building was ultimately removed around 1934. According to University Historian, Professor John A Murphy, an oral history from the time dictated that the authorities decided to take down the statue before the students may have decided to blow it up as an unwanted symbol of British rule. A statue of St Finbar was erected in its place. The Victoria statue was later included in a 1995 event celebrating the history of the university.
Today
As of 2022, University College Cork (UCC) had 24,195 students. These included 16,849 in undergraduate programmes, 7,346 in postgraduate study and research, and 2,800 in adult continuing education across undergraduate, postgraduate and short courses. The student base is supported by 3,429 academic, research and administrative staff. As of 2022, UCC reportedly has c. 200,000 alumni worldwide.
Campus Student numbers, at over 24,000 in 2022, increased from the late 1980s, precipitating the expansion of the campus by the acquisition of adjacent buildings and lands. This expansion continued with the opening of the Alfred O'Rahilly building in the late 1990s, the Cavanagh Pharmacy building, the Brookfield Health Sciences centre, the extended Áras na MacLéinn (Devere Hall), the Lewis Glucksman Gallery in 2004, Experience UCC (Visitors' Centre) and an extension to the Boole Library – named for the first professor of mathematics at UCC, George Boole, who developed the algebra that made computer programming possible. The university also completed the Western Gateway Building in 2009 on the site of the former Cork Greyhound track on the Western Road as well as refurbishment to the Tyndall institute buildings at the Lee Maltings Complex. In 2016, UCC acquired the Cork Savings Bank building on Lapps Quay in the centre of Cork City. As of 2017, the university is rolling out a programme to increase the space across its campuses, including the creation of a 'student hub' to support academic strategy, 600 new student accommodation spaces, and an outdoor sports facility.
The School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences and the School of Applied Psychology are based on the North Mall Campus, the site of the former North Mall Distillery.
Since 1986, 2.5 tonnes of uranium rods had been stored in the basement of the UCC physics department for use in a sub critical assembly (SCA) for research and training purposes. The US originally gave Ireland the uranium as part of the Atoms for Peace programme, but due to public opposition, the reactor was disassembled in the 1980s. As there is no nuclear waste site in Ireland, the uranium remained on campus, with the last update on its status from then-Minister for Education Ruari Quinn being that it was securely stored in a radioactive waste store until it could be permanently relocated off campus.
In 2006, the university reopened the Crawford Observatory, a structure built in 1880 on the grounds of the university by Sir Howard Grubb. Grubb, son of the Grubb telescope building family in Dublin, designed the observatory and built the astronomical instruments for the structure. The university paid for an extensive restoration and conservation of the building and the three main telescopes, the Equatorial, the Transit Circle and Sidereostatic telescopes.
In 2009, several UCC buildings were damaged by flooding. The floods also affected other parts of Cork City, with many students evacuated from accommodation. College authorities postponed academic activities for a week and indicated that some flood-damaged property would not be repaired until 2010. Particularly impacted was the newly opened Western Gateway Building, with the main lecture theatre requiring a total refit just months after opening for classes.
In 2018, UCC's campus became home to the first "plastic-free" café in Ireland, with the opening of the Bio Green Café in the Biosciences building.
Research The university is one of Ireland's leading research institutes, with among the highest research income in the state. Page 3 In 2016, UCC secured research funding of over €96 million, a 21% increase over five years and a high for the university. The university had seven faculties: Arts and Celtic Studies, Commerce, Engineering, Food Science and Technology, Law, Medicine, and Science. Between 2005 and 2006 the university was restructured from these seven faculties into four colleges: Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Science; Business and Law; Medicine and Health; and Science, Engineering and Food Science.
According to the 2009–2012 UCC Strategic Plan,UCC.ie Strategic Plan 2009–2012 pg20-22 UCC aimed to enhance research and innovation. In 2009, the university was ranked in the top 3% of universities worldwide for research.Times Higher Education Supplement university ranking 2009 – rank 207 out of 9,000
UCC's published research strategy proposed to create "Centres of Excellence" for "world-class research" in which the researchers and research teams would be given "freedom and flexibility to pursue their areas of research". Research centres in UCC cover a range of areas including: Nanoelectronics with the Tyndall Institute; Food and Health with the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, NutraMara, Food for Health Ireland Research Centre, and Cereal Science Cork; the Environment with the Environmental Research Institute (with research in biodiversity, aquaculture, energy efficiency and ocean energy); and Business Information Systems.
The Sunday Times "Good University Guide 2015", put UCC at the top of their rankings for "research income per academic".
In 2008, the governing body of UCC announced that it would be the first institution in Ireland to use embryonic stem cells in research under strict guidelines of the University Research Ethics using imported hESCs from approved jurisdictions. In 2009, Professor of Mathematics at UCC Des McHale challenged the university's decision to allow embryonic stem cell research. According to the results of a poll conducted by irishhealth.com, almost two in three people supported the decision to allow embryonic stem cell research.
In 2016, Professor Noel Caplice, director of the centre for research in Vascular Biology at UCC and a cardiologist at Cork University Hospital, announced a "major breakthrough in the field of blood vessel replacement".
The development of Cork Science Park, in collaboration with Cork County Council, and Munster Technological University has been a goal of UCC since 2011.
Campus companies The university has a number of related companies, including Cytrea, which is involved in pharmaceutical formulations;cytrea.ie Firecomms, an ICT company concentrating on optical communications; Alimentary Health, a biotech healthcare company; Biosensia, who develop integrated micro-system analytical chips; Sensl, part of ON Semiconductor; Luxcel, which is involved in the development of probes and sensors; and Optical Metrology Innovations, which develops laser metrology systems.
Knowledge transfer Innovation and Knowledge transfer is driven by UCC's Office of Technology Transfer, an office of the university dedicated to commercialising aspects of UCC's research and connecting researchers with industry. Recent spinouts from the college include pharmaceutical company Glantreo, Luxcel Biosciences, Alimentary Health, Biosensia, Firecoms, Gourmet Marine, Keelvar, Lee Oncology, and Sensl.
Commemorative events In 2015, the university marked the bicentenary of mathematician, philosopher and logician George Boole – UCC's first professor of mathematics. In 2017, UCC unveiled a €350 million investment plan, with university president Patrick O'Shea outlining the development goals for UCC in philanthropy and student recruitment. The plan proposes to provide for curriculum development, an increase in national and international student numbers, the extension of the campus and an increase in the income earned from philanthropy.