Blending business and technology together to bring education to a higher level

Karl Jones introduces the new high-tech Quinn School of Business at UCD, which is setting new standards for business-related…

Karl Jones introduces the new high-tech Quinn School of Business at UCD, which is setting new standards for business-related education at undergraduate level in Ireland.

One of the boldest and most imaginative initiatives in the recent history of business education in Ireland was taken by University College, Dublin in October last year when the ribbon was cut on its new Quinn School of Business at its Belfield campus is south Co Dublin.

Not since the same college opened the now well-known and highly regarded Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business in Carysfort, Blackrock, has the university put such a strong emphasis on blending business and technology together into such a strong educational package aimed at producing the best business graduates.

The new school, named after Glen Dimplex director Mr Lochlann Quinn, is proving very popular with students and there was a 34 per cent increase in first preferences for the university's commerce degree last year.

READ MORE

The commerce degree has been one of the college's mainstays down the years and the university believes the opening of the new Quinn School of Business will cement and enhance its reputation in the area of business education.

While buildings dedicated to the study of business and finance have opened in other third-level colleges around the country in the last decade, University College Dublin's building is purposely-designed to support a fresh and decidely technological approach to education.

As just one example, the building's 2,200 network connection points will give students access to a vast array of educational material and research information at any time of the day.

Wireless connectivity is also present in all areas of the Quinn School of Business - a student perspective on the combination of technology and business education comes in the shape of the school's interesting "laptop initiative".

This requires students to have a laptop computer in order to participate in the school's courses.

Professor Philip Bourke, dean of University College, Dublin's commerce department, maintains that the use of laptops and other associated technologies will change the face of business education and learning forever.

He says, for example, that a collaborative approach - where students, for example, learn to work and learn in small groups - represents the future.

The giant US-based personal computer manufacturer, Dell, is providing the laptops at a low cost and the Bank of Ireland has offered low interest finance rates to students to buy them.

University College, Dublin's commerce department has produced a long list of leading business figures, but Prof Martin Butler, dean of the Quinn school says the old ways of teaching - where lecturers address students in a large lecture hall and impart knowledge while students take notes - is over.

He says the school is more about interactive learning.

But students also have to work hard. "As regards the learning process, our fundamental belief is that students must take responsibility for their own learning and for achieving the maximum benefit from the time they spend in what is the most impressive education resource in Ireland," he says.

He says the new school has been set up to allow students use their laptops no matter where they are in the building.

HE says transponders will be situated throughout the building so students can log on anywhere. The school itself has been funded mainly by Mr Quinn and his wife, Brenda, who donated about €5.1 million to the building of the school.

Significant donations were also given by Accenture, Arthur Andersen, AIB, Bank of Ireland, the Berber family, CRH plc, the Doyle Family, Deloitte and Touche, Dunnes Stores, Ernst and Young, Irish Life and Permanent, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers and Ulster Bank.

The three-storey, 7,500 square metre building was designed by the well-known company of RKD architects.

The school, along with its sister school - the highly-acclaimed Michael Smurfit Graduate School of Business - was recently awarded accreditation by the distinguished American Association of Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB).

Both schools have also received the Brussels-based EQUIS accreditation from the European Foundation for Management Development (EFMD).