The School of Computing celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018.
Student Experience

 

A Message from NCI President Gina Quin
Foreword by the Chairman of the Governing Body Fr. Leonard Moloney, SJ
This past year has seen National College of Ireland (NCI) prosper. A healthy financial surplus has been driven by academic innovation, continued strong reputation, growing student numbers and excellent management. At the same time, the academic and support teams have increased to serve the growing body of students who have chosen NCI as their third-level step to future fulfilment. The college continues to significantly impact educational disadvantage in Dublin’s inner city through it’s Early Learning Initiative. Consistent growth, achieved over time, has been carefully cultivated by NCI in measured response to emerging education and industry needs. The college has seen an increase in research and publications, stronger relationships with academic and industry peers and, most importantly, graduates going out into the world equipped to reach their full potential. In 2017/2018 the college reached a decisive point: NCI needs room to deepen its roots here in the heart of the IFSC and extend its support to learners and the economy at large. As a living intersection between community, education and business, growth at NCI promotes consonant growth locally and nationally. The college is actively seeking an expansion of its physical footprint to allow further impact on learners and our community. NCI’s Early Learning Initiative (ELI) is a shining example of the college’s commitment to change lives through education and to reach out to its community. In 2017/18, ELI made almost 9,000 interventions with children and families living in disadvantaged areas. Weaving partnerships with government, donors and business, ELI has dramatically improved the educational outcomes and aspirations of hundreds of children, and has shared best practice in the areas of early years’ education and restorative practice locally, nationally and internationally. 2018 saw two important anniversaries for NCI; ELI celebrated its 10th birthday and the School of Computing celebrated its 20th anniversary of commencing programmes in computing and technology. Together with our School of Business, our psychology and learning and teaching programmes, Springboard and professional apprenticeship programmes, and our academic research, these anniversaries have offered plenty of opportunity to excel in our chosen areas of academic excellence. I am proud to chair the governing body of this college that serves so many: those who may be the first in their family to attend third-level, those returning to study after a long break, developing skills in a changing world, those who are taking a second chance at education, and those young people coming to college for the first time. I would like to thank my fellow members of the governing body and I look forward to continuing to work with our President, Gina Quin and all the team at NCI.
NCI at a glance
Highlights of the Year
 Sept 2017
 Sept 2017 July 2017 This year saw Bobby Kerr “In Conversation With” Patrick Coveney (Greencore), Anne O'Leary (Vodafone) and Brian Lee (Freshly Chopped), securing footfall and high profile coverage for the college.
The first intake of IFS apprentices commence their apprenticeships in international financial services. Launch of the MSc in Cybersecurity, with specialisations in forensics and cloud security – run at full capacity.
 Nov 2017
Dec 2017 Dr Corina Sheerin, with CIT colleague Professor Margaret Linehan, wins the Literati Emerald Best Full Paper Award at the British Academy of Management conference: Gender Performativity and Hegemonic Masculinity. The first winner of the 30% Club Scholarship to increase the number of women undertaking STEM at masters’ level commences her studies: Danielle Cunningham undertakes the MSc in Data Analytics Graduation Ceremony at the Dublin Convention Centre New Learning Teaching and Assessment Strategy 2018-2022 is approved by Academic Council  Sept 2017  Sept 2017
 March 2018
 Jan 2018
Jan 2018 This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Early Learning Initiative and the 20th anniversary of the School of Computing. Launch of ELI’s “Let’s Talk”, aiming to encourage conversations in families and build clear and positive communication on a basis of Restorative Practice. The college held its first Spring Graduation, with 144 students and 300 guests attending two sessions in The Kelly Theatre, that were live-streamed internationally. The School of Business hosted the inaugural Dean’s Awards for Excellence Ceremony – this year focusing on award stage students achieving an overall grade average of 70% or higher. 50 students from across 19 programmes, both full-and part-time were recognised.
March 2018
 March 2018
April 2018 Dr Leo Casey attends the Meeting and Conference of Age Friendly Universities in DCU NCI continued its domination of the Citi UpStart competition, with students Elena Evdokimenki, Duwayne Petty and Imran Rahman securing second place for the college in the grand final, with EZ-Leap, which users proximity sensors to allow users to hop-on-hop-off public transport without needing to manually validate payment.
April 2018 NCI’s Careers Service won the National AHECS Excellence in Employability Award, from a shortlist of 9 entries, including TCD and DCU.
March 2018 NCI held its first Inventathon. Supported by KTI and DRIC, mentors from both the School of Computing and the School of Business encouraged teams to identify the resources needed to make their ideas a reality and to build teams with those diverse skillsets. External judges declared ‘Background Verification using Blockchain’, which also won the audience vote, the Most Feasible and ‘Smart Flow Drain’ the Most Innovative.
Visit from School of Computing International Advisory Board: Professors Jeffrey Ullman (chair), Michael Franklin and Armando Fox, from Stanford University, University of Chicago and UC Berkeley respectively, also gave public lectures, which were well attended and reported.
May 2018
June 2018
June 2018 The second Annual Summer Course on Essential Questions for Educators Everywhere organised jointly by NCI and Mercy College, New York, with contributions by Dr Leo Casey, Dr Sheena Hyland and Dr Meera Oke. ELI conference ‘The Constitutional Role of Parents as the Primary Educators of their Children’, with key note speakers Paschal Donohue, TD and Minister for Finance & Public Expenditure and Reform, and Francis Chance from the Katharine Howard Foundation.
College News
NCI’s library expanded its opening hours in 2017 and still reports a 90% occupancy rate.
Most popular print business book Kehoe, M. (2013), Organisational Behaviour 2nd ed., Dublin : Gill & Macmillan
Most popular print computer book Pallant, J. (2011) SPSS Survival Guide 6th ed.
Most Popular E-Journal (Business) Harvard Business Review
Most Popular E-Journal (Computing) ACM Proceedings
The Exams Office launched an information hub to more efficiently share essential information, including all exam documents, queries, user guides and an easy-to-read list of FAQs and important dates. Particularly valuable to those working remotely, this hub ensures continuity of service to all faculty, associate faculty and staff. The award-winning Careers Service brought 109 separate employers onto campus, many on multiple occasions, across 36 events. Work placements were secured for 3rd year Computing undergrads, as well as a small number of Cybersecurity and Accounting & Business students. The majority of these placements were paid positions. All this work bears fruit, as can be seen in the First Destinations results – Only 1.4% of full-time undergrads and 2.2% of full-time postgrads who responded were seeking employment 6 months after graduation. For Springboard+ and ICT Skills Conversion students who completed in January 2018, 86% were employed 3 months after completion, with 80% of those in roles relevant to their area of study.
Dr Sheena Hyland and Dr Yvonne Emmett joined NCI as Lecturers in Education this year, in an academic year that sees the first final year cohort of the BA in Early Childhood Education successfully complete their studies, which means that all 4 years of that course are up and running. 2 years of the BA in Adult and Workforce Education are also running, and new Post Graduate Diploma in Learning and Teaching and MA cohorts in Further Education and Adult & Workforce Education start their programmes This academic year saw the following Learning & Teaching Professional Development Events: Technology Enhanced Learning: Making the Most of Moodle with Technology Showcase (Sam Cogan and Julie Power); Intercultural Learning and Teaching (Dr Sheena Hyland); Using RPEL for your Professional Development (Dr Mike Goldrick; Stage to Lecture – Performance Skills for Lecturing (Karl Quinn); Lean-in Circles (Tiffany Quinn); Action Research in Higher Education (Dr Yvonne Crotty) Throughout the year, the Learning Support Team, through strategic actions such as Disability Support, Assistive Technology, Mathematics Support, Getting to Grips, Managing Your Learning and Student Engagement, continued to make important and positive contributions to the overall NCI student learning experience. This year, Claire McConnell joined the team as Student Engagement Officer.
The School of Business had a year that saw great growth. The BA Hons in Marketing Practice and the BA Hons in Psychology performed particularly strongly. The School of Business successfully validated two new suites of programmes arising out of industry partnerships with the Department of Employment & Social Protection and the Irish League of Credit Unions. The School will be working alongside DEASP/ ILCU partners to deliver these co-created, fully QQI validated programmes designed to professionalise the education of their staff/members as they adapt to the changing employability environment.   In addition, the School has been successful in securing deferential validation for work placement options on two further undergraduate degree programmes. Students on four out of five full time, undergraduate programmes now have the option of a year-long work placement.  In a busy year for research and publications, the highlight was an award of €160,000 from the Health Research Board to Dr Joanna Power and Dr Paul Hanly for their project entitled Loneliness and health: the moderating role of befriending services.  This represents the first successful HRB bid in the School and is a real milestone in terms of our development and progress in chasing funding.
The School of Business welcomed new Vice Dean of Undergraduate Studies, Dr Danielle McCartan-Quinn, pictured here with the Dean of The School of Business Dr Colette Darcy
NCI continued covered lots of ground in research output, a full list of publications by all NCI staff for the time period of this report has been extracted from TRAP and is available for review here.
Early Learning Initiative
International
Sheila Mahon (International Officer) and Ellen Schoenfelder (Deputy International Officer)
Student Experience
This year we had 25 clubs and societies with the addition of Rugby, eSports, and Golf. The Men’s Football team won the CUFL Division 2 Cup. The Men’s GAA team reached the final of the Corn Comhairle Championships. The Women’s Pool team were called for trials for the Irish National Pool team. The Men’s Football and Men’s Rugby teams also represented NCI at the World InterUniversity Championships in Barcelona. Great achievements for all student lead teams. The Equality and Music societies represented NCI at the Board of Irish College Societies Awards (BICS) in Cork. Sports Scholarships were awarded to 9 students in Rugby, Football, Cricket, Powerlifting and Athletics. All of these athletes competed at competition level in their sport throughout the year. 3 of our scholarship athletes, Shane Stokes, Josh Hogan and Kyle Hogan have reached League of Ireland level in football and rugby scholar Stacey Flood represented Ireland on the National Womens’ 7’s squad in competitions across the world.
The 2017 NCI Graduation Ceremony at the Dublin Convention Centre
The School of Computing celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2018. The school has grown substantially in last 20 years and is one of the largest schools in Ireland with leading edge programmes in the areas of Cloud Computing, Data Analytics, Cybersecurity and Fintech. Five new faculty members joined the school during the academic year 2017/2018: Dr Arghir Moldovan, Dr Irina Tal, Dr Dympna O’Sullivan, Dr Sachin Sharma, Dr Ade Fajimisin. In total 17 Journal papers and 24 conference were published by the school faculty, and many national and international conferences were attended. The NEWTON Project is now in its second year, and the European Commission evaluation has been successful. Funded under the Horizon 2020 Innovation Action call, the School of Computing will continue to research on self-directed learning pedagogies and to develop technology-enhanced educational content for programming and maths subjects for third level education, as well as for Geography at primary level, working alongside 14 academic and industry partners from 7 European countries.
ELI Director Joesphine Bleach, Minister for Children and Youth Affairs, Katherine Zappone, NCI President Gina Quin and friends attending ELI's ‘Let’s Talk’ book event.
Meet Claudia Hocke, Tatiana Chagas, Stephen Valentine and Andrew Bennett, graduates in business and computing, as they share their NCI experiences.
Annual Report 2017 - 2018
2017/2018 has been a successful year for National College of Ireland. The college is in a healthy academic and financial position and we continue to work hard to ensure our programmes remain relevant in a highly competitive market. The college consistently achieves very high levels of graduate employment (98% of NCI graduates gain employment), a testament to the quality of our graduates and our teaching. We are firmly committed to our unique NCI ethos: the warmth of the college staff, delivering a friendly and supportive college environment that helps our students to excel both academically and in their personal well-being. This is a credit to everyone here at NCI. Thanks to all! Achieving academic excellence and innovation is at the heart of NCI’s academic approach to all programmes, in computing, psychology, learning and teaching, business or HR, finance or apprenticeships. In 2018 NCI celebrated 10 years of the Early Learning Initiative (ELI), which continues to work to prevent educational disadvantage through structured programmes with families, children and schools. ELI knits NCI into the fabric of our local community and seeks to increase the educational capital of Dublin’s inner city. This year, we also marked the 20th anniversary of the School of Computing. From its establishment, the School of Computing has been responsive to developments in ICT, serving students, honing their talents and critical thinking to form knowledgeable, skilled professionals. The School has forged strong sectoral links, collaborating with other academic institutes, working closely with employers and government bodies to address the skills gap in emerging technologies, and bringing valuable research opportunities to the college. The School of Computing is guided by an International Board of world leading academics in the field of technology, and NCI was delighted to welcome these International Board Members to the college in 2018. Our School of Business continues to deliver excellent programmes, ensuring our pedagogic expertise is underpinning our learner experiences and driving research activity and publications. Business disciplines, HR, psychology and strong postgraduate delivery including our MBA programme, are all part of our dynamic learning opportunities for both full- and part-time students. NCI is growing in terms of faculty, student body and ambition, and is operating in surplus. The college is ready to grow in size, and we hope to be able to expand our physical footprint over the coming years. Credit for NCI’s success must be shared by our academic staff, our administrative teams, student support, facilities teams, and the expertise and commitment of our voluntary governing body members. It is a privilege to lead a team working together to meet our next challenge: to expand our campus, enabling us to better elaborate our mission to change lives through education. Gina Quin President, NCI
Dr. Corina Sheerin, winner of the the Literati Emerald Best Full Paper Award
Student Stories
Financial
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