University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin

University College Dublin - National University of Ireland, Dublin - more commonly University College Dublin (UCD) - is Ireland's largest university, with over 20,000 students. The university is located in Dublin, Ireland.

The university is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland. The terms of the Universities Act, 1997 were used to rename the university after resolution by the Senate of the National University of Ireland.

Table of contents

1 Origins 2 Move to Belfield 3 Its Reputation 4 See also 5 External links

Origins

The university was was founded in December 2 1908 by Royal Charter, as University College, Dublin a constituent college of the National University of Ireland. It was a lineal successor of an earlier Catholic University of Ireland founded in 1854 by Cardinal John Henry Newman, which later became a earlier carnation of University College Dublin under the Royal University of Ireland.

Confusingly University College, Dublin was not part of the University of Dublin whose only college is University College Dublin's rival, Trinity College Dublin. It was proposed during the late 1960s that the two colleges would merge under the university, but this did not happen, see University of Dublin.

Move to Belfield

In the 1950s, University College, Dublin began a move from its Earlsfort Terrace campus, the previous headquarters of the Royal University of Ireland, to a new 350 acre park campus at Belfield in a suburb on the south side of Dublin. By 2003, most of the university had moved out to Belfield. One of its previous locations, the Royal College of Science in Merrion Street is now the location of the renovated Irish Government Buildings, where the office of the Taoiseach (prime minister) is located. University College, Dublin also had a site in Glasnevin, the Albert Agriculture College, which is now the location of Dublin City University.

Its Reputation

The university is very highly regarded internationally with many of its graduates going on to post-graduate studies at other top international universities, particularly in America and Britain. Among its most accomplished Alumni are the writer James Joyce, Goldman Sachs chairman Peter Sutherland (who is also chairman of BP, was previously head of the WTO, EU Commissioner and Attorney-General of Ireland), Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald, former Heinz chairman Dr. Tony O'Reilly, the fourth President of India V V Giri, and four of the last five taoisigh (Irish prime ministers): John Bruton, Albert Reynolds, Dr. Garret FitzGerald and Charles Haughey.

The universities Smurfit Business School, sponsored by packaging tycoon Michael Smurfit, is Ireland's best and always scores very highly in league tables of international business schools. In 1964, University College, Dublin became the first European university to offer the MBA degree.

See also

• Education in Ireland
• List of Irish Universities

• Official site
• The Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business