Trinity College Dublin - Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape
Wednesday, 26 September 2012
Today Trinity College Dublin publically released Trinity College Dublin: Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape, which was completed in July 2012 at the request of the Higher Education Authority.
It describes in detail how Trinity aims to contribute to the development of the higher education system in Ireland in response to the National Strategy for Higher Education.
Recognising that all universities in Ireland have distinct missions, Trinity College Dublin: Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape outlines where Trinity can contribute on the basis of its distinctive achievements and competencies. In particular Trinity College Dublin has an international reputation as Ireland’s leading university. Trinity’s stated mission is ‘To engage our students and the broader society in the quest for knowledge, seeking to achieve excellence in all we do, and responding with creativity and imagination to the challenges and opportunities of a shared future’. By succeeding in this mission we will achieve our vision to be a university of global consequence.
Trinity College is committed to providing our students an education rooted in research, scholarship, and critical enquiry – with active citizenship in an inclusive society as our goal. Demand for our programmes is high and we consistently attract highly-qualified students. Within the national context one of Trinity’s distinct features is its position as a provider of postgraduate education, with 200 Masters courses and 2,000 students enrolled for PhDs. The strength of Trinity’s teaching and learning lies in its research-led teaching which is embedded throughout the entire curriculum. Trinity recognises that building on proven research strengths in core priority areas will achieve the goal of delivering research of consequence and recognition as a world reference point in such areas.
Trinity’s distinctiveness in regional engagement is demonstrated by having all 32 counties of Ireland as ‘our region’, yet we are embedded in the heart of Ireland’s capital, serving the local community through access initiatives and serving the city through civic engagement. Significant outreach activities are woven into the fabric of College life for staff and students.
Trinity College Dublin is distinctive in being Ireland’s premier university as evidenced by independent metrics for international research collaborations. Trinity has always been an internationally-oriented university and remains so in terms of staff profile and the nature of international collaborations in research and scholarship. The new Global Relations Strategy (PDF) will build on the national campaign for internationalization.
Recognised internationally as Ireland’s leading university in all relevant rankings, Trinity has top 50 rankings in four subjects and top 100 rankings in a further 14 areas in the recently published QS Subject Rankings.
To compete for Ireland on the world stage, we must further develop those factors that lead to globally competitive universities – this will evolve Trinity’s distinctiveness contributing to the overall effectiveness of Ireland’s higher education system.
As Ireland’s premier university for research activity and knowledge exchange, Trinity is ranked
- 44th in the World in terms of research impact (citations per paper)(Times Higher Education Ranking 2011)
- 63rd in the World, 10th in Europe, based on research performance (Leiden World University Ranking 2011)
- in the top 1% of research institutions in the world in 17 fields (Thomson Reuters Essential Science Indicators), an increase of almost 150% from 2004
- 65th in the World, and 21st in Europe, across all indicators (QS World University Ranking 2011).
Knowledge Transfer Highlights include:
- 400+ collaborations with companies
- 76 campus companies formed since 1985, 29 companies were formed in the last 5 years, an average of 6 per annum
- Over 300 invention disclosures have been received in the last 10 years
- In 2011, Trinity granted full commercial licences to 4 Trinity spin-outs, 4 Irish SMEs, 2 US companies, and 2 multinational companies. Five evaluation licences were concluded
- In 2011 Trinity entered a total of 109 contracts with industry to conduct a wide range of collaborative research and research services projects.
Trinity will continue to collaborate with like-minded educational institutions to deliver a higher education system that meets the needs of students and society. Trinity College Dublin: Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape outlines:
- 11 distinct clusters in which Trinity is an active participant
- two consolidations: with the Loyola Institute and with the Royal Irish Academy of Music (RIAM); the Governing Board of the College and the University Council have approved that the RIAM will become an associated college of Trinity College Dublin
- ten collaborations and collaborative initiatives which are in various stages of development.
Trinity College is determined to play its full part in meeting the challenges posed by the National Strategy for Higher Education. We can best meet those challenges by succeeding in our vision to be both a university of global consequence and a university that is fully engaged in the national context.
As Ireland’s university on the global stage, Trinity is uniquely positioned to leverage national and international opportunities for research and innovation to achieve institutional, national and European goals, deliver key economic and societal benefits and drive the advancement of knowledge.
Here is the full copy of Trinity College Dublin – Towards a Future Higher Education Landscape (PDF July 2012).