Universities Ireland

From Re.ViCa

Universities Ireland is a new "umbrella" body to promote co-operation and collaboration among universities in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, and to enhance their reputations internationally.

It was set up by the nine universities on the island of Ireland. The new organisation was launched by the university presidents in July 2003.

Its web site is at http://www.universitiesireland.ie

Details

(sourced from http://www.universitiesireland.ie/home/aboutus.php)

Universities Ireland will undertake work in a number of designated areas. These include:

• Research projects to improve North-South inter-university co-operation, e.g. on the harmonisation of regulations (see below)
• Conferences on matters of common interest to universities on the island, e.g. e-learning
• Work on "branding" the Irish universities abroad, and improving the island of Ireland's profile in the international student recruitment market
• Development of university-industry links, technology and research transfer on an 'island of Ireland' basis
• Staff development and training issues

Universities Ireland is funded by an annual levy paid by the nine universities, and by grants from the Department of Education and Science in Dublin, the Department for Employment and Learning in Belfast and InterTradeIreland.

The Council of Universities Ireland consists of the nine university presidents, with representatives from the Department of Education and Science, the Department for Employment and Learning and InterTradeIreland present as observers.

The secretariat of the new body is provided by the Centre for Cross Border Studies, with offices in Armagh and Dublin, which was set up in 1999 to research and develop practical co-operation across the Irish border in a number of areas, notably education.

Universities Ireland complements the Northern Ireland universities' membership of Universities UK (UUK), which continues to play an important role sector in lobbying and disseminating information and policy throughout the UK higher education sector and the Conference of Heads of Irish Universities (CHIU) which plays a similar role in the Republic of Ireland.

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