University College Cork (UCC) is eliminating all single-use plastic throughout restaurants, shops and vending machines as part of a wider drive to create a more sustainable campus.
The university, which published its five-year strategic plan on Tuesday, is also creating the first dedicated sustainability and climate action office in Ireland’s higher education sector.
To assist with the push to go plastic-free, water refill stations have been placed across campus, thousands of reusable cups have been handed out to staff and students and mini dishwashers have been installed across various locations.
UCC president Professor John O’Halloran said “people and the planet” are at the heart of its development plans for the campus.
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“Together the UCC community has created a roadmap that will secure our future so that we can continue to inspire and shape future generations, while also providing the expertise and insight to meet the challenges our society faces,” he said, at the launch of the report on Tuesday.
The move to go plastic-free came from students, he said, and has given the university a chance to become an “experimental ground” for how the rest of society can take similar measures.
“This is a community of 25,000 students, 3,500 staff ... We estimate that UCC is the 14th largest settlement in the country,” he said.
The new office of sustainability and climate action will be tasked to deliver on a range of environmental targets, while ensuring learning, teaching, research and operations lead the transition to a more sustainable future.
The blueprint for the university also places a big focus on developing new postgraduate programmes, boosting international student numbers and widening student access to higher education.
It plans to offer increased pathways into university courses from further education and is seeking to widen access to postgraduate education through philanthropy and other sources.
Prof O’Halloran said about 23 per cent of its students come from “non-traditional pathways” and about 47 per cent of students at the university avail of student grants. It was important, he said, to ensure postgraduate options are made more accessible for all students.
“The key is making sure that funding is not a barrier ... I’m a first generate graduate myself and a lot of support will be required,” he said. “We’re not in favour of students loans or anything like that. ... I lived in the US and we’ve seen the damage that it creates.”
He said he was hopeful that the Government will deliver on promised additional funding for the sector to help ensure universities can provide all the supported needed for new students.
Prof O’Halloran estimated that while universities received about €4,000 per student in Government funding about 10-15 years ago, this has since dwindled to about €1,500. Yet, over the same time period, the student intake has grown more complex with additional needs.
On the question of student accommodation, he said the college’s Crow’s Nest development at Victoria Cross is close to completion and the university aims to provide a total of 2,000 student beds within the time frame of the strategic plan. Thousands of other beds are available in private, purpose-built student accommodation.
“Affordability rather than availability is the issue,” he said, adding that its campus-based accommodation was pitched below competitor’s prices.
The strategic plan also includes a programme of research prioritisation coupled with an academic recruitment across ten indicative areas of strategic importance.
UCC said it has been actively recruiting leading researchers globally and placing a strong emphasis on attracting and supporting early career researchers.
Prof O’Halloran said the university’s research is now focused on the “global grand challenges” as identified by the United Nations’ sustainable development goals.
There are also plans to create a student forum, or a representative assembly of students, to enable constructive consultation and participation with university leaders.
