Address to New Students
Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College
16 September 2013
Welcome, everybody, to Trinity College, to this great university, which you can now call your university.
I’m delighted to be here with you, at the start of your great adventure. I remember very well my own first week at Trinity, so I think I’ve a fair idea what many of you must be feeling – a combination of nerves and excitement, enthusiasm and a just a bit of trepidation.
I guess it’s because Trinity is such a remarkable, challenging place that we feel this trepidation: we want to live up to it. I do as Provost, and you do as our newest students.
I came here as an undergraduate in 1983 to study engineering. I remember my parents driving me up from Wexford to Dublin for Fresher’s week, and how proud they were for me.
And I’ll never forget how I felt when I first walked through the dark and narrow Front Arch into the wide expanse of Front Square. I felt the history all around me and the energy everywhere I went, as if I had become part of a new and exciting world.
I’ve never lost my initial sense of excitement about Trinity. It was the reason I did my Ph.D. here, and later returned as a lecturer. And it was why I was so honoured to have been elected two years ago by the staff and the students to lead Trinity as Provost until 2021.
I want all of you to have as good an experience as undergraduates - and as postgraduates – as I had. I hope that, like most of our alumni, you’ll develop a lifelong attachment to Trinity. So I’ve been thinking about what I can tell you that will help maximise your student experience.
I’m speaking as a former Trinity student, as a lecturer who spent many years teaching undergraduates and postgraduates, and as the head of this university, who wants you to realise your potential - for your own sake. And for Trinity’s sake.
There are lots of things that make Trinity a special place to study and work. You can see it all around you: the fine buildings, the long and distinguished history, the city centre location, the quality of our research and scholarship, the fact that we’re not only Ireland’s top university, but, according to the latest rankings, we’re the 18th best university in Europe, and 61st in the world – and that is out of eight hundred universities evaluated.
Of course what really makes Trinity special is the quality of the students. You are what make this a great university. So it’s in your own interest, and the university’s interest, that you make the most of your experience here.
You will all have worked hard to be admitted to this university. You deserve to be here – let no one take that achievement away from you. But you have won for yourself a privileged position. And in return much is expected of you.
It costs upwards on 30 thousand euro per year to educate an undergraduate student, and most of that is paid by the Irish government. Your parents are making sacrifices that allow you to be here. Your professors and the staff in Trinity will likewise work hard for you to achieve your potential.
So this is a life-changing opportunity, made possible by the dedication of many individuals. Don’t take this opportunity for granted – don’t waste it.
Today I want to say a bit about the kind of education and opportunities we offer. I know that College can be overwhelming, especially in the beginning. But it doesn’t have to be. The more you familiarise yourself with our way of doing things, and the more you can avail of our resources, the more rewarding you will find this experience.
The Trinity Experience – 1. Education
Those of you who’ve come through the Leaving Cert have done one of the toughest pre-university systems in the world – and all of you no matter where your’re from have competed in tough exams. Congratulations for getting through it so well! But the kind of learning the Leaving Cert promotes is exam-focused – whereas a Trinity education is about learning to think for yourself.
As a Trinity student, your education is research-led, which means that by your final years as undergraduates, you will have an opportunity to engage in research for yourself, using primary sources. You will be discovering and writing up something that no-one else has ever looked into. The discovery may be small, but it will be the result of your unique research, whether in the lab, in archives, or through field work.
The division between you and your professors will dissolve - you will be together engaged on a common enterprise of discovery. So from today you should start thinking of yourselves not as pupils, but as scholars. Start thinking not what you can remember, but what you can discover. Your lecturers don’t want you to regurgitate what they say. They want you to come up with your own interpretation.
Trinity is now in its fifth century of intellectual endeavor, and our research record is stronger than it has ever been. Our research frequently makes headlines so you may have read, or heard, about some of the things we’re doing.
You might have heard, for instance, about grapheme, the new material which researchers in our Centre of Nanotechnology are working on. It’s 200 times stronger than steel and 100,000 thinner than human hair, and potentially it can be used to make lighter cars, engines which use less fuel, and computer screens that fold into your pocket.
Or you might have heard about the work of our Bioengineering Centre, where they are now able to tissue engineer human tissue using adult stem cells. Or you may have read about the research carried out at our Anti-Bullying Centre.
And perhaps you know the names of some of the campus or spin-out companies, which have emerged from our research – companies like Opsona Therapeutics, for drug development, or Identigen, which conducts gene research and was particularly useful during the horsemeat scare, and Havok, which emerged from our School of Computer Science and has transformed the virtual and gaming worlds.
A fifth of all spin-out companies in Ireland stem from Trinity. Trinity is at the heart of the national push to attract talent to Ireland, nurture existing talent, and turn good ideas into sustainable jobs.
Why am I telling you this? It’s because it should give you confidence that the education you receive in Trinity is among the best in the world. The Trinity curriculum is aimed at developing your ability to investigate and to apply your ideas. As long as you attend your lectures and seminars, use the library and other research facilities, do your essays and complete your coursework, speak up in seminars to defend your views – as long as you’re doing all this, you’ll automatically get in the habit of discovery, because this work is aimed at making you think.
Our academic mission looks to engage our students in intellectual rigour and participatory citizenship. We want to send out graduates who will not only play their part in driving the economy, but will also help improve society and safeguard democracy. We want you to be alert and active citizens who will use all the advantages of your intelligence and your education to help bring about a just, equal, and sustainable society.
The Trinity Experience – 2. Extracurricular
Of course, when it comes to being active citizens with interesting jobs, it’s not just what happens in the lecture room or laboratory that makes a trinity education.
A recent Trinity survey of employer expectations showed that employers of our graduates value:
- critical and independent thinking;
- excellent communication skills;
- and students who have developed a capacity for responsibility and initiative through extra-curricular activities.
‘Extracurricular activities’ means getting involved in clubs and societies. It can also mean writing and editing articles for our college papers; or volunteering and fund-raising for charity; or debating or organising events. Some students even start their own businesses.
And ‘extracurricular’ means engaging with each other. This is a cosmopolitan campus, with students from every county in Ireland and from many countries across the world. We are enriched by this diversity. I would encourage you to meet as many different people as possible.
In your later undergraduate years, take the opportunity to study abroad. A Trinity education is a global one which engages with people, research and ideas from all round the world.
There’s probably no other time in your life when you’re surrounded by so many talented, dynamic people with, crucially, the time, energy and vision to explore life. Do plunge straight into college life.
Of course, it’s a large campus and as a student you have all kinds of requirements. But there are people to help you make the most of college life. As Provost I have ultimate responsibility, but I have a team to help me. Some of them are here today:
Dr Amanda Piesse is Dean of Students. Her job, as you have just heard, is to develop and coordinate policies to promote the student experience beyond the classroom.
Dr Claire Laudet is the Senior Tutor and she oversees the tutorial service which offers student support in all aspects of college life, including accommodation, welfare, health and disability services. You will hear all about them at your general orientation meetings.
The Trinity Community
You are now a member of the Trinity community. This is a community of over 17,000 undergraduates and postgraduates, of 2,973 staff, and of over 95,000 alumni living in 130 countries. It’s a world-famous community.
Many of our former students are household names – people like:
- Oscar Wilde,
- Samuel Beckett,
- Wolfe Tone,
- J.M. Synge,
- Mary Robinson,
- Michael O’Leary of Ryanair and
- Susan Denham, our current chief justice.
Former students like
- Leo Varadkar,
- Lucinda Creighton, and
- Mary Lou McDonald
are now helping to run the country, while in arts and entertainment we have film maker
- Lenny Abrahamson, who made What Richard Did, and
- Dominic West who you may know from The Wire.
So this is a community highly visible on the world stage, and you are part of it. Your membership is not just for the next four years, or however long you study here. You will be a valued member of Trinity for the rest of your life.
Our past students, our alumni, often feel such affection for this university that many of them contribute their own money to build new faculties and libraries, or to found scholarships and prizes. In your turn you – as well-paid and responsible members of society - will be asked to support the greatness of this College and I ask you to remember this day when you started here – and to ensure that others, in later generations, can feel as you do now.
Our brilliant graduates have become ambassadors for Trinity across the world, and we want you to play a similar leadership role in your turn. As Ireland goes through this difficult transition, the word should go out that - to paraphrase former US President, John F. Kennedy - the torch has passed to a new generation of Irish citizens. We want our graduates to have national and global reach and impact.
With your intelligence, drive and ability, you have the opportunity to make your mark on the world. That opportunity begins in Trinity. My promise is that we will do everything in our power to help you fulfil your potential. The rest is up to you.
Inevitably, like everyone, you will face challenges in your life, but you should be able to face these challenges with confidence, because the Trinity experience will have transformed how you view the world, and how you view yourself.
I am reminded of a line from that great Irish poet, Michael Hartnett: ‘I pity the man who must witness the fate of himself’.
You may sometimes have felt that life was forcing you in a certain direction - that you were fated to follow a certain path and fulfil certain expectations. Well, you don’t have to witness that ‘fate of yourself’ – education is how you can transform your fate.
I wish you all four life-transforming College years. I look forward to keeping in touch with you throughout – and in the years ahead.
Thank you.
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