University College Dublin

Origins

University College Dublin was founded in December 2, 1908 by Royal Charter, as a constituent college of the National University of Ireland[?]. It was a lineal successor of an earlier University College Dublin founded in 1854 by Cardinal John Henry Newman, known as the Catholic University. Previously its degrees were awarded by the Royal University of Ireland. In 1908 it became part of the federally organised National University of Ireland.

Move to Belfield

From the 1950s, UCD began a move from its Earlsfort Terrace campus, the previous headquarters of the Royal University, to a new 350 acre park campus at Belfield in a suburb on the south side of Dublin. By 2003, most of UCD 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. It now as 12,000 students.

Its Reputation

UCD 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, European Commissioner and Irish Attorney General), Unilever chairman Niall Fitzgerald, former Heinz chairman Dr. Tony O'Reilly and all of the last five taoisigh (Irish prime ministers): Bertie Ahern, John Bruton, Albert Reynolds, Dr. Garret FitzGerald and Charles Haughey.

The university's 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, UCD became the first European university to offer the MBA degree.

External links

• University College Dublin (http://www.ucd.ie)
• The Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business (http://ucdbusiness.ucd.ie)