DCU is hailed as decades ahead of rest
DUBLIN City University has been listed among the best "campuses of the future" by internationally renowned magazine Newsweek.
The north Dublin education facility, which includes The Helix theatre, is listed alongside some of the most prestigious colleges in the world, including Arizona State University, Stanford and MIT.
Although in its baby years compared to most other universities, Newsweek says that DCU is decades ahead of most, despite having a minuscule budget by comparison.
A special feature in the summer double edition of the magazine says that the Dublin university is "breaking out of the ivory tower to engage local communities and economics".
The four-page spread which includes a full page picture of The Helix focuses on colleges that have heavily invested in research projects with the hope of becoming "epicentres of the emerging knowledge economy".
"Even in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, where schools are often weighed down by slow-moving bureaucracies, universities are fast adapting," it says, adding: "In Ireland, for example, Dublin City University -- which was founded less than 30 years ago (unlike nearby Trinity College, which dates to 1592) -- has been given a clear mandate to move Ireland up the ladder of the knowledge economy."
It adds that companies like Intel and Samsung run research labs in the middle of the campus, with the help of the Inward Development Agency.
DCU is compared with Arizona State University which has a budget of $2bn (€1.36bn) and dozens of world-class researchers, but DCU is expecting to run a loss of €2m over the coming years.
- Kevin Doyle
