University of Dublin

History

The University of Dublin was modelled on the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge as a collegiate university, Trinity College being named by Queen Elizabeth I as the mater universitatis ("mother of the university"). The founding charter also conferred a general power on the college to make provision for university functions to be carried out. So, for example, the charter while naming the first provost of the college, the first fellows ("in place of many') and the first scholars, in addition named The 1st Baron Burghley to be the first chancellor of the university. No other college has ever been established, and Trinity remains the sole constituent college of the university. The project of establishing another college within the university was seriously considered on at least two occasions, but the required finance or endowment was never available.

The most recent authoritative statement of the position is in the Universities Act 1997. The section relating to interpretation specifies:

"3.—(1) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires—

'Trinity College' means the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin established by charter dated the 3rd day of March, 1592, and shall be held to include the University of Dublin save where the context otherwise requires in accordance with the charters and letters patent relating to Trinity College;

...

'the University of Dublin' means the university established by the charters and letters patent incorporating Trinity College and which said university is further provided for by the letters patent of the 24th day of July 1857;"

Queen Victoria issued the letters patent in 1857 giving formal legal foundation to the senate, and other authorities specific to the university. Subsequently, in a remarkable High Court case of 1898, the provost, fellows and scholars of Trinity were the claimants and the chancellor, doctors and masters of the University of Dublin were among the defendants, and the court held that Trinity College and the University of Dublin "are one body". The judge noted pointedly (referring to the then recent founding of University College Dublin) that "[t]he advisers of Queen Victoria knew how to incorporate a University when they meant to do so" and that the letters patent dealt with "not the incorporation of the University of Dublin but of its Senate merely".

Organisation

The university is governed by the university senate, chaired by the chancellor or their pro-chancellor. While the Senate was formally constituted by the Letters Patent of 1857 as a body corporate under the name, style, and title of "The Chancellor, Doctors, and Masters of the University of Dublin", it had existed since soon after the foundation of Trinity College being brought into being by the enabling powers contained in the founding Charter. Consequently, the Letters Patent had the effect of converting a preexisting non-incorporated body relying on custom, practice and precedent to establish its authority into a corporate body clearly, and explicitly established in law. The Letters Patent empowered the university senate by stating:

"It shall be and shall continue to be a body corporate with a common seal, and shall have power under the said seal to do all such acts as may be lawful for it to do in conformity with the laws and statutes of the State and with the Charters and Statutes of the College."

The Letters Patent also defined the composition of the Senate:

"It shall consist of the Chancellor, the Pro-Chancellors, and such Doctors and Masters of the University as shall be members of the Senate in accordance with such regulations and conditions as the Board shall enact." Consequently, the Senate does not determine its own composition. As the "board" is the governing authority of Trinity College, and moreover no business may be put before the Senate save on the proposal of the board, it would seem the university has some degree of subsidiarity to the board of the college. However this is countered by the role of the visitors.

Each meeting of the Senate is headed by a "caput", consisting of the chancellor, the provost of Trinity College and the senior master non-regent. The practical significance of the caput is that no meeting of the Senate may be convened without it, and each member of the caput has an individual veto on all decisions of the Senate. In attendance also are, usually, the registrar (who is responsible for legal and administrative matters) and the junior and senior proctors (who present undergraduate and postgraduate candidates for degree commencement ceremonies). There is also a mace holder, the chief steward (responsible for college security) or his deputy, who proceeds the caput in a procession. (Attendees stand while the procession progresses to the head of the room). Meetings of the Senate are of two kinds. Meetings to confer degrees, which, according to ancient usage, are known in the university as "public commencements" and are the most numerous, and business meetings (usually one a year), which are concerned with university business other than degree conferring.

Current officers

Mary McAleese is the current chancellor of the university, its titular head, and there are six pro-chancellors, who can act in her place. In March 2015, they were Professor Dermot F McAleese, Professor John Scattergood, Mary Henry, Edward McParland, Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell and Sir Donnell Deeny. The chancellor and pro-chancellors are elected by the Senate. This is a function carried out without the intervention of the board, and so is entirely a university matter. This was not always the case, as the founding Charter of Queen Elizabeth I specified that successors to the first chancellor were to be elected by the Fellows, then when, later, the board of the college was established this power of election passed to it. The letters patent of Victoria as part of incorporating the Senate transferred the right of election to the Senate. The actual election procedures are set out in the university statutes. The current process is that when a vacancy for chancellor or pro chancellor occurs notice of this is sent by post to all members of the Senate who are invited to nominate candidates. In the event of a contest a secret ballot of senators is held at a special convened meeting of the Senate.

Senate composition

The undermentioned persons are members of the Senate, provided that in each case

they are doctors or masters of the university:

Resident doctors or masters of the university, that is, doctors or masters who are not members of the college or university staff but who hold rooms in college or are in attendance on lectures in arts or in the professional schools.

Doctors and masters of the university who have held a Studentship of the university, or are Moderators who have been awarded a large gold medal, or moderators who have received a gold medal in or after 1935, or moderators who have received two moderatorships of a class higher than class III, and who have applied to the registrar of the Senate for membership of the Senate, without payment of fee.

Former Fellows of the college.

Representatives and former representatives of the university in Seanad Éireann.

Members of the staff of the college or university, during their tenure of office.

Doctors or masters of the university who have applied to the registrar of the Senate for membership of the Senate, and have paid a fee of (£5 in 1966 – €65 in 2012)

(Although these rules make every holder of master's degree or a doctorate eligible to be a member of the University Senate, they in practice facilitate a membership consisting largely of members of the staff of the college. Consequently, while the Senate in Dublin formally, or potentially resembles in composition the Senate at Cambridge, in practice it has a similar composition to the Regent House at Cambridge.)

Degrees

Graduates of liberal degrees, i.e. non-professional such as Humanities or Science, receive an honours Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Dublin after four years study in Trinity College, but may receive an ordinary B.A. after three years' study. A minority of courses result in the award of degrees by other names, such as Bachelor of Science. Bachelors of at least three years' standing may proceed to the degree of Master of Arts. Graduates in professional subjects such as Medicine, Dentistry or Engineering, receive professional degrees; these were in the past postgraduate, and consequently the graduands have an ordinary BA conferred on them first, followed by the relevant professional degree. In modern times they receive all their degrees at the same commencements, but (as with other non-professional degrees) they are technically eligible for the ordinary BA after the first three years of study.

Apart from MA degrees awarded on the basis of standing, the university may also award an MA degree ad eundem gradum to holders of Oxford and Cambridge MAs. This is a reciprocal arrangement with Dublin University MA degree holders being entitled, in turn, to apply for an MA from Oxford or Cambridge respectively. This originates from a medieval system of accreditation or degree recognition and is a formal statement that the degree from the other university is recognised. Currently the three universities have agreed that this degree will only be conferred in special cases, usually when the applicant is a member of staff away from their "Alma Mater" and require a Master's to participate fully in university governance.

Members of staff at Trinity College whose degrees are not from the University of Dublin, and do not qualify for an MA ad eundem gradum, may have the degree MA jure officii conferred. There are detailed rules for this, consisting of statutes proposed by the board and agreed by the Senate at a business meeting, with entitlement to the MA being based on years of service. Consequently, all the staff of the college after serving a qualifying period, can expect to receive the degree and so be able to enjoy membership of the Senate. (The practical significance of this is that the tendency for the great majority of participants in Senate business meetings to be members of staff of the college is reinforced.)

Other persons, holding specified kinds of high office may qualify for a degree Jure Dignatatis, but the awards of such degrees are now very rare having essentially been superseded by the practice of awarding honorary degrees.

Admissions

Undergraduate applications to the University of Dublin from Irish, British and European Union applicants are submitted through the Central Applications Office system. However, as the sole constituent college of the university, all applications must be made to Trinity College Dublin as no admissions office exists outside of the college's jurisdiction. Decisions on admissions to undergraduate courses are made by the Academic Registry who instruct the CAO to make offers to successful candidates. Admission to the university is highly competitive, and based exclusively on academic merit. In order to be considered for admission, all applicants must first reach the university's minimal matriculation requirements, which typically involves holding sufficient recognised qualifications in English, Mathematics and a second language, however, the Mathematics requirement can be waived if Latin is presented as a second language. Furthermore, applicants for certain courses may be required to achieve more specific qualifications than those prescribed for minimum matriculation requirements. Eligible applicants must then compete for places based on the results of their school leaving examinations, however, applicants can additionally take matriculation examinations which are held in the university in April, in which each subject is considered equivalent to that of the Irish Leaving Certificate. Applications for restricted courses require further assessment considered in the admissions process, such as the Health Professions Admissions Test (HPAT) for medicine or entrance tests for music and drama courses. As applications for most courses far exceeds available places, admission is highly selective, demanding excellent grades in the aforementioned examinations. Through the CAO, candidates may list several courses at Trinity College and at other third-level institutions in Ireland in order of preference. Places are awarded in mid-August every year by the CAO after matching the number of places available to the academic attainments of the applicants. Qualifications are measured as "points", with specific scales for the Leaving Certificate, UK GCE A-level, the International Baccalaureate and all other European Union school leaving examinations.

For applicants who are not citizens or residents of the European Union, different application procedures apply.; 16% of students are from outside Ireland, and 40% of these are from outside the European Union. Disadvantaged, disabled, or mature students can also be admitted through a program that is separate from the CAO, the Trinity Access Programme, which aims to facilitate the entry of sectors of society which would otherwise be under-represented. The numbers admitted on this program are significant relative to other universities, up to 15% of the annual undergraduate intake.

Parliamentary representation

The university has been represented since 1613 when King James I granted it the right to elect two members of parliament (MPs) to the Irish House of Commons. When the Kingdom of Ireland and the Kingdom of Great Britain were joined with the Act of Union, which came into force in January 1801, the university sent one MP to the British House of Commons at Westminster until 1832, when it was given another. It continued to elect two until the establishment of the Irish Free State in December 1922. The Government of Ireland Act 1920 provided for a House of Commons of Southern Ireland, for which the university was to elect four MPs. As in Westminster, where university representatives were MPs and not peers, University of Dublin seats were in the Dáil and not the Seanad. These were the only MPs to attend the opening of the House in 1921 since Sinn Féin candidates in the twenty-six counties were returned unopposed and took the other 128 of the 132 seats. Sinn Féin recognised their own parliament determined by the Irish people as distinct to any continuation of British legislative rule under the British Government of Ireland Act. From 1923 to 1936, the university elected three TDs to sit in Dáil Éireann. Since the new Constitution of Ireland in 1937, the university has elected three Senators to Seanad Éireann.

The current Senators are David Norris, Lynn Ruane and Tom Clonan. Notable representatives have included Edward Gibson, W. E. H. Lecky, Edward Carson, Noel Browne, Conor Cruise O'Brien and Mary Robinson.

The franchise was originally restricted to the Provost, Fellows and scholars of Trinity College. This was expanded in 1832 to include those who had received an MA and in 1918 to all those who had received a degree from the university.