UCC president reveals ambitious strategy for the future of the college

“OUR bread and butter is to make sure we produce quality education and our ambition is to continue to do this,” said the President of University College Cork (UCC), Professor John O’Halloran after the Cork university recently unveiled a five-year strategic plan to 2028.

The strategic plan includes a renewed focus on research, a widening of entry pathways to the university, and the introduction of new postgraduate programmes to make UCC “the university of choice for postgraduate education”.

UCC President, Prof John O’Halloran said the ambitious five-year plan has a ‘strong values’ based strategy. “It is a five-year map of setting out our place, our plan, and our people. That is what we are trying to do. It is a five-year plan, but it will have to be subject to be pivoted. Looking out five years from now, nobody knows what it will look like, but that is certainly our ambition right now with a strong values-based strategy,” he said.

The five-year plan also highlights a new research strategy, UCC Futures, which prioritises research areas of strategic importance. Mr O’Halloran said there is a kind of shift in the dial-in research. 

“The main theme is a kind of shift in the dial-in research. We are already a research-intensive university. We have launched UCC Futures which is essentially getting into thematic areas that we will be world-class at. We don’t want to be good at everything and we won’t be excellent at everything, so we have decided there are strategic areas that we want to pursue.

“We must be the university of choice for post graduate education in programmes such as food and health, sustainability, photonics and quantum, future pharma and future medicine. I’m a scientist myself, so one of the big challenges is to make sure that science meets the world, and the world is best met through humanities. I think humanities have a huge contribution to make. At UCC we have a great humanities college. That is part of the journey where we are on as an organisation ourselves,” he added.

“Sustainability is our unique selling point (USP), said the President of UCC. “We have great leadership in this role. UCC is the top ranked university in the world with regards to sustainability. It is something we feel very passionate about. The world needs to get better and change. Our students and our society will demand that of us. We have been making sure we have been doing the research. We have been doing the teaching and our own operations are in line with that kind of spirit of sustainability. We are not perfect, but we will do our best as a learning organisation.” Prof O’Halloran said UCC consulted with various stakeholders both at home and abroad to ensure a wide variety of voices were heard with regards to their ambitious strategic plan. “What we did was set up a group within the university and we consulted both within and outside the university, the department and internationally. UCC has a proud association with international students and we listened to their voices as well as with businesses and our community. It was a broad scope because we are a public university, and we want to hear those voices. At the same time we want to lead, so we wanted to hear their voices but also to bring people on a journey.”

UCC is determined to keep improving its infrastructure with several key capital developments planned by the Cork university during the strategic plan.

Key capital developments planned by the university in the next five years include the €106 million Cork University Business School (CUBS) in Cork city centre, a €75 million expansion of UCC’s Tyndall National Institute, a €2.5 million upgrade of the Squad Gym in UCC’s Mardyke Arena, and the delivery of 2,000 student beds.

Prof O’Halloran said he is conscious of the ‘important’ role UCC plays in the local economy and he wants to continue providing top facilities for their students. “We will keep on improving our facilities. We must. It is too important to the economy. UCC impacts on the local economy of €2.3 million a day. There is an economic aspect. The big challenges for me will be the mental health issue for students. We believe that through participation in societies, clubs, and sport there will be a real opportunity for them to grow and to navigate this complex phase. We will support them with the resources we have as well.

The funding for this programme will have to come from within existing resources or any extra resources we secure along the way. The government have been good with us in terms of capital funding.”

The President of UCC said a key aim for the university is to ensure students are helped during their college years and afterwards when they are looking to source employment after they graduate. “Employability is incredibly high. 95% of our students that graduate go into employment which is fantastic. People might think that UCC is elite and it takes from a certain cohort. We really believe in diversity and believe that when students come in, they are successful. We draw from a range of places. Our retention rate from first to second year is among the highest which we are pleased with. It is not just box ticking.

“When they come in they are successful. When they go out, they can seek employment. We firmly believe in the transition through which is helping them as they progress through university and transitioning out looking at employability. We are working on this. We are happy, but we can keep improving,” he added.

“I’m only one of a very strong team,” said Mr O’Halloran. “We can only do this as Team UCC. I am proud of our team and the work they have done right across the organisation. Everybody plays their part. They are critical in our success. Our bread and butter is to make sure we produce quality education. We produce world class graduates. Our ambition is to continue to do this and to challenge ourselves and to secure the future for the graduates as they go into the workplace.”

Prof O’Halloran said he has reached out to staff at Munster Technological University (MTU) following the recent ransomware attack. He added that they are working hard to protect against future IT-related attacks on UCC.

“We have reached out to MTU and professor Cusack. We have a number of joint programmes and we wish them well. We work hard every day to protect the institution. Everything at the moment is going well.”