[dropcap]M[/dropcap]inister for Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD has announced that €197 million in funding will be allocated to projects in higher-level institutions under the Human Capital Initiative, including €20 million for DCU.
The Human Capital Initiative was announced as part of Budget 2019 and aims to create additional capacity within higher-level institutions to meet the need for increased enterprise to take place.
The funding will be allocated to projects over the next five years, 2020-2024, and also aims to reform and innovate within the sector. These measures will allow Irish higher-level institutes to be in line with best international practice.
Minister Harris believes that these projects will “develop and change teaching and learning” while also adding that they will help future graduates with “the critical importance to the economy and the workplace of the future.”
DCU’s project entitled ‘DCU Futures’ will create capacity for 1,000 extra students. The learning experience for students will be transformed, along with teaching style and methods.
New programmes of study will be created in different areas and digital skills will be improved to equip graduates to work post-Covid-19. These skills are vital in the 21st-century world of work.
The new programmes to be developed by the University as part of the project are bachelors in Global Challenges; Psychology and Disruptive Technologies; Energy/Sustainable Systems Engineering; and Digital Business and Innovation. These programmes will be introduced along with specialisms in Bioprocessing; Chemistry with Artificial Intelligence; Physics with Data Analytics; and Business with Analytics.
Commenting on the announcement DCU President, Professor Daire Keogh said that the project will equip graduates to “flourish as eminently employable, creative, global citizens.”
DCU will also lead an Irish Universities Association project entitled ‘Towards a multi-campus Micro-credential system’. This project will provide Irish universities with a fantastic opportunity to create a national framework for quality assured and accredited micro-credentials and in doing so, become the first European country to achieve this feat.
Maynooth University; University College Cork; Trinity College Dublin; University College Dublin; University of Limerick; and NUI Galway will all collaborate with DCU on this project.
Rory Cassidy
Image Credit: Simon Harris Twitter