UCC scraps Cork city centre plan for new business school

University College Cork (UCC) has announced that its new business school will be built on its main campus, with the chairman of its governing authority, Sean O’Driscoll, confirming it has stepped back from its initial plan to locate it in the city centre.

Launching its five-year capital development plan yesterday, Mr O’Driscoll said UCC will instead be investing €60m on its main campus for Cork University Business School (CUBS).

UCC was initially granted planning permission in April 2023 for a €106m business school on the old Brooks Haughton site on South Terrace. It would have seen around 4,000 students and 180 staff relocating to the city centre site from UCC main campus.

Speaking on the university’s change of plan, Mr O’Driscoll said: “When we set out plans for the South Terrace site, it was aspirational.

“It was a very substantial monetary plan, a very ambitious plan, but it was aspirational because the money wasn’t there for most of it.

“The concept of the business school was in a different time. The world has changed, the way teaching is delivered has changed, and inflation in the construction sector has been extremely high, particularly during and after the pandemic.

“Now, what’s different about this plan is that all the funding is available. This is a business school that we can deliver.”

As for the South Terrace site, which UCC bought in 2019 for over €17m, Mr O’Driscoll said the college was looking at all possibilities.

“One option we are looking at is if it could be used for student accommodation. The university has 1,500 student bedrooms, and the strategic plan hopes to get that to 2,000.

“That site will be evaluated to see if it is feasible to deliver student accommodation. If not, it will be sold.”

In addition to a new CUBS building, UCC’s capital development plan also includes a €130m investment into the Tyndall National Institute, doubling its physical size and footprint. Mr O’Driscoll said this investment — €124m of which has come from a Government grant — represents the single largest investment in the history of the university.

A further €20m will be invested into UCC’s dentistry facilities, including the modernisation of the Cork University Dentistry School and Hospital, which sees more than 23,000 patients a year.

Over €17m will also be invested in outdoor sports facilities, including a future sports park at Curraheen.

In addition, a joint UCC-HSE initiative will see the development of the UCC Clinical Medical School at Cork University Hospital.