University of Limerick

University of Limerick

Ollscoil Luimnigh
File:University of Limerick.png
Latin: Universitas Limericiae
Motto	Eagna Chun Gnímh (Wisdom in action)
Established	1 January 1972
Chancellor	Peter Malone
President	Professor Don Barry
Academic staff	420
Students	13,000
Address	National Technological Park Limerick , Limerick , Ireland
Affiliations	AUA EUA LAOTSE IUA UI
Website	www.ul.ie
File:University of Limerick Logo.png

The University of Limerick (UL) (Irish: Ollscoil Luimnigh) was established in 1972 as the National Institute for Higher Education, Limerick and became a university by statute in 1989 in accordance with the University of Limerick Act 1989. The university was the first university established since the foundation of the State in 1922, followed later in the same day by the establishment of Dublin City University.

The university is located along the River Shannon, on a 80 hectare (200 acre) site in the 240 hectare (600 acre) National Technological Park at Castletroy, 5 km from Limerick city centre. The university has currently in excess of 11,000 full-time undergraduate students and 1,500 part-time students. There are also over 800 research postgraduates and 1,300 taught postgraduate students at the university. The Co-Operative Education (commonly called Co-Op) programme allocates all students with an 8-month work placement as part of their degree. This is one of the first such programmes in the state.

Professor Don Barry is the current president of the university having been appointed in 2007.

History

File:Not a government in sight 0067777 (2).jpg

The "twin tower" flags at the main entrance to the University campus

According to Dr Edward M Walsh, first President of the University of Limerick, the Mayor of Limerick applied to have a Queen's College located in the city in 1845, but it went to Belfast, Cork and Galway instead.

The Limerick University Project Committee was founded in September 1959 as a project of the 1957 Mayor of Limerick, Ted Russell. Another supporter, The Hon Mr Justice Dermot Kinlen, was a High Court judge and later the first State Inspector General of Prisons and Places of Detention. Both Mr Russell and Mr Justice Kinlen were awarded honorary degrees by the university in 2002.

The state was reluctant to found more university-level institutions, and in the late-1960s developed a policy of creating second-tier colleges which led to the foundation of the National Institute for Higher Education (NIHE) at Limerick, with Dr Walsh appointed as Director of the Institute on 1 January 1972. The first students were enrolled in 1972 when the institute was opened by then Taoiseach, Jack Lynch. In the early years the billionare philaethropist Chuck Feeney (through Atlantic Philanthropies) was a major donor to the University which has received millions in direct funding through the Atlantic Philanthropies foundation. The Shannon Development Company was also an early supporter of the project and its influence led to the creation of the National Technological Park beside the Institute after its foundation.

The College of Education was created in 1991 from the dissolved Thomond College of Education, Limerick that shared a common campus with the university. Thomond College of Education was founded in 1973 as the National College of Physical Education, and now forms the Department of Educational and Professional Studies focuses on secondary education programmes. Mary Immaculate College, Limerick currently functions under the College of Education and focuses on primary education and arts programmes.

"Ireland's American University"

The university, and previously as the institute, synthesized many American ideas in education, including a cooperative education programme and grade point average marking. During the 1970s the limited state of Government finances led Dr. Walsh and his team to attract European Investment Bank and World Bank funding in addition to private and alumni donors at a time when Irish universities depended heavily on the State for funds and did not aggressively seek other avenues of finance.

In 1989 before becoming a university, the name Technological University of Limerick was seriously considered as a title for the new university, this being probably considered as a complement to the strength of the institutes courses in technology, or a derivative name of the proposed federal National Technological University which instead lead to the University of Limerick in its own right. Until the mid-1990s it operated a trimesterised academic term, then changed to US-style semesterisation.

In 2005 the university introduced a new corporate logo.

International Education

The International Education Division is successfully implementing the University’s strategic objectives in international education by attracting international students to UL and providing UL students with opportunities to study abroad. UL welcomed international students from 64 countries in AY2007/08.

UL has been an active participant in the European Union's Erasmus programme since 1988 and now has a total of 207 partner institutions in 24 European countries. In addition, UL students may study at partner universities in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, China and Singapore.

The International Education Division at UL has appointed agents in the USA, China, India, Mexico, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Russia, Kazakhstan and Iran for the recruitment of qualified international students for all academic programmes at UL, undergraduate and postgraduate, taught and research.

Organization

One of the university's many fountains

Faculty

The university has four faculties, these are:

• Kemmy Business School
• Faculty of Education & Health Sciences
• Faculty of Science & Engineering
• Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

The two linked colleges of the university are:

• Limerick Institute of Technology
• Mary Immaculate College, Limerick

Student

Main article: University of Limerick Students' Union

The university has a Students' Union representing the student body. The Union is presided over by five sabbatical officers- the President, the Education Officer, the Welfare Officer, the CSO (Campaigns and Services Officer), and the PPO (Publicity and Publications Officer). Policy decisions are made by the sabbatical officers and the Class Reps Council. Many societies and sporting clubs exist for social activities and inter-varsity competition. The university also has a Postgraduate Students' Association, with a full-time sabbatical postgraduate president which represents the postgraduate student body. It is one of only two Irish universities with such a position.

Staff

The university has had a number of internationally notable members of staff since its foundation

• Pat Cox

Former EU President Pat Cox served as President of the European Parliament from January 2002 until July 2004. During his Presidency he campaigned to promote the enlargement of the European Union making over two hundred visits to thirty-three states including all of the states of today’s and tomorrow’s European Union. Pat Cox was first elected to the European Parliament as a Member in 1989 for the constituency of Munster in the Republic of Ireland. He was elected three times to Parliament and served on, among others, the Economic and Monetary Affairs, Institutional Affairs, and Legal Affairs Committees Prior to this Pat held a potion as an economics lecturer at the University of Limerick. During this time he developed a strong interest in European affairs and an intellectual curiosity and conviction about the European integration process. He contributed to the development of the first ever under-graduate programme for European studies at the Uinversity.

• David Lorge Parnas

David Lorge Parnas is a Canadian early pioneer of software engineering, who developed the concept of information hiding in modular programming, which is an important element of object-oriented programming today. He is also noted for his advocacy of precise documentation. Prof David Parnas worked at the University of Limerick between 2002 and 2008.

Clubs and Societies

There are 60 student-run Clubs and Societies in the University, most of them are sporting clubs. The clubs are supported by the Students Union, the Sports Department and the Arts Office. More information regarding Clubs and Societies can be found here - UL Clubs and Societies.

The Clubs and Societies Development Officer (CSDO) is responsible for the overall development of Clubs and Societies within the University. Paul Lee has held this position since its inception.

Rankings

The University of Limerick is ranked 1st in Ireland for degree completion among students in the university sector. It also has one of the highest employment rates for its students in Ireland, perhaps due to the Co-operative Education programme. UL is ranked 4th for attracting students who attain over 500 points in the Leaving Certificate .

UL has consistently increased its international ranking in certain surveys of the third level sector year-on-year, most recently reaching the "top 400 universities in the world" in one.

Science and Engineering

• The University hosts the Irish Software Engineering Research Centre, Lero . Lero was established in November 2005 with support from Science Foundation Ireland’s CSET (Centre for Science, Engineering and Technology) programme. It is a collaborative organisation, embracing the software engineering research activities in the University of Limerick (UL – lead partner), Dublin City University (DCU), Trinity College Dublin (TCD) and University College Dublin (UCD).

• The Interaction Design Centre is an interdisciplinary research group in the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems focused on the design, use and evaluation of information and communications technologies.

• The LRC was established in 1995 as the Localisation Resources Centre at University College Dublin (UCD) and moved to the University of Limerick (UL) in 1999 where it was re-constituted as the Localisation Research Centre (LRC) as the information, research and educational centre for the localisation industry in Ireland.

• The Enterprise Research Centre (ERC) is a research centre committed to conducting leading edge research on the challenges facing current and next generation enterprises. Staff associated with the centre have considerable research and practical experience in the modelling, scheduling and resource management of enterprise optimisation, design and implementation of integrated systems, product innovation and project management, and quality, reliability and productivity improvement tools.

The Arts

The University fosters the arts and is currently home to the: • Irish World Academy of Music and Dance - an internationally acclaimed centre for innovation and research in music and dance performance and scholarship • Irish Chamber Orchestra - Ireland's leading international chamber orchestra, funded by An Chomhairle Ealaíon, The Irish Arts Council • Daghdha Dance Company - Ireland’s leading contemporary dance company funded by An Chomhairle Ealaíon, The Irish Arts Council All three bodies also engage in the commissioning and performance of new Irish music and dance.

The University is the permanent home of several Fine Art Collections. Some of its notable collections are: The National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland The Watercolour Society of Ireland Collection The Richard Wood Collection of Irish Landscape Paintings The O'Malley Sculpture Collection The Irish American Cultural Institute's O'Malley Collection The Armitage Collection

The University Concert Hall (UCH) is the University's principal venue for the performing arts it is a 1,000 seat multi-purpose venue and was the first purpose built concert hall in the country.

The Bourn Vincent Gallery is the University's principal venue for temporary exhibitions with an ancillary programme of seminars, lectures and performances. The Gallery aims to enhance enjoyment and appreciation of the visual arts of both Irish and international importance. It is particularly interested in contemporary practices. Since its establishment, the Bourn Vincent Gallery has exhibited collections by August Sander, Barry and Philip Castle, a selection of pieces from Gordon Lambert’s collection and hosts the annual exhibition of new additions to the National Self-Portrait Collection of Ireland and ev+a each year.

The University has an active policy of commissioning and acquiring exemplary works of art. The University's own Arts Collection includes some fine outdoor sculpture by international artists including Michael Warren, Peter Logan, Alexandra Wejchert, James McKenna, Tom Fitzpatrick, Antony Gormley and most recently Sean Scully. These sculptures have added significantly to the artistic and cultural ambience of the University.

Accommodation

Many of the housing districts in close proximity to the University are in the majority populated by students, especially in the adjacent Castletroy area. In recent years, several large student apartment complexes have been built (about 15-20 mins walk from the University) under Section 50 tax incentives. The university is notable compared to other Irish universities in that a significant amount of accommodation is on-campus. There are five on-campus student villages, the most recently having been opened for residents in 2006.

The oldest is Plassey Village, situated opposite the university's main gate. This accommodates 424 students in terraced houses consisting of either four or eight bedrooms and a kitchen/living area. It is mostly occupied by first years. It was built between 1987 and 1992 in four phases. The village boasts a village hall and many small but beautiful gardens.

Kilmurry Village is the second oldest student village and is located in the east of the campus. It accommodates 540 students in six or eight bedroomed, terraced houses. It is the closest village to the University Arena, which has an Olympic standard 50 metre swimming pool. It was built between 1994 and 1997, in two phases.

Dromroe Village was completed in 2001 and is located on the south bank of the River Shannon. The first with high rise accommodation ,it houses 457 students in six, four or two bedroomed ensuite apartments.

Thomond Village was opened for the Autumn 2004 semester and comprised the first university buildings to be located on the north bank of the River Shannon, in County Clare. It has accommodation for 504 students in six, four, two or one bedroom apartments.

Cappavilla Village is the newest student village, opened in September 2006 on the North Bank, in close proximity to the new Health Sciences Building. An extension to Cappavilla opened in September 2007.

The University Arena

The University Arena, located in the University of Limerick campus, on the banks of the river Shannon, is Ireland's largest indoor sports complex.

Open since 2002, it comprises The National 50 m Swimming Pool, The National Strength and Conditioning Centre, an international 400 m athletics track, a four-court sports hall and over 70 acres (280,000 m²) of outdoor sports pitches among much more. Each year it caters for over 500,000 customers along with many international sports athletes and teams including the Irish and Munster Rugby team.

Expansion

The Foundation Building, including the University Concert Hall (now home to the Irish Chamber Orchestra), and the new library and several other buildings were built in the 1990s. The years 2000–2004 saw the addition of the Materials & Surface Science Institute (MSSI) building, Dromroe Student Village, a large sports arena and, alongside that, Ireland's first Olympic-standard 50 metre swimming pool. In 2005 the Engineering Research Building and Millstream Courtyard buildings opened in a complex near the Foundation Building.

The university is constantly expanding, with the Kemmy Business School building completed alongside the Schuman Building. This will be the first business school in the world to have a live trading floor present. Several new buildings have opening on the north bank of the River Shannon. The "University Bridge", officially opened in late 2004, provides road and pedestrian access to what is planned as a complete second "North Bank" campus. Thomond Village was the first facility on the North Bank, opening in 2004, and was followed by the Health Sciences Building in 2005. A second bridge, this one pedestrian only, just after being completed (November 2007) between the North and South Banks from the Millstream Courtyard to the Health Sciences Building. Cappavilla Village was completed mid-2006 on the North Bank, and a building for the Irish World Music Centre (currently located in the Foundation Building basement) is due to be completed soon. Construction of this building started in May 2007. The university owns more land on the north bank of the Shannon and it hopes to expand the North Bank campus to the size of the original campus.

Much of this work is due to the contributions of the UL Foundation, discussed above; the remaining funds are usually from the Irish Government or the European Union.

The university is also actively expanding its academic expertise. In the 2005–2006 academic year, the university debuted a five year Bachelor of Architecture course [LM099]. The head of the school will be Merritt Bucholz.

The university has also established a medical school which received its first cohort of 32 students in 2007. Unlike traditional medical programs in Ireland, the course is open only to graduates (of any discipline). Entry is based upon the candidate holding a 2.1 Honors degree, along with sufficient performance in the GAMSAT examination in the year of entry. The four year curriculum is closely allied to those of St George's, University of London and Flinders University in Adelaide. It is expected that the medical school shall move into a new purpose built school in 2010. The program has increased student intake to approximately 80 students in 2008, and it is anticipated the intake will remain similar for 2009.

Notable campus developments

• 1972 – Physical Education and Sport Sciences Building (originally home to Thomond College of Education)
• 1974 – Main Building Phase 1A - Block A and B
• 1978 – Schrödinger Building
• 1984 – Main Building Phase 1B - Block C (extended in 1996), D and E
• 1985–99 – Student Centre (including the Students' Union building)
• 1992 – Robert Schuman Building
• 1993 – Foundation Building
• 1996 – Kathleen Lonsdale Building
• 1997 – Glucksman Library & Information Services Building
• 1999 – Computer Science Building
• 2000–01 – University Arena
• 2002 – MSSI Building
• 2005 – Engineering Research Building and Millstream Courtyard
• 2005 – Health Sciences Building
• 2007 – Pedestrian Living Bridge
• 2007 – Kemmy Business School
• 2008 – University of Limerick Boathouse (Student Funded - Storage and training space for Rowing, Kayak, Mountain Bike and SubAqua Clubs)
• 2008 - The Irish Chamber Orchestra Building
• 2009 – Languages Building
• 2009 - Academy of World Music & Dance
• 2010 (due) – School of Medicine (Graduate Entry)

See also

• University of Limerick Debating Union
• University of Limerick Students' Union
• Education in the Republic of Ireland
• List of universities in the Republic of Ireland

External links

• Official site
• Google Maps hybrid view (low resolution)
• UL Medical School
• Enterprise Research Centre
• Lero
• Kemmy Business School
• Faculty of Education and Health Sciences
• Faculty of Science and Education
• Facutly of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences