The National College of Ireland (NCI) is committed to advancing knowledge in its specialist areas of business, human resource management, accountancy, finance, computing and community studies. With an established track record for widening participation into higher levels of education, the college offers full and part-time courses from foundation to degree and postgraduate level. All courses are fully accredited and delivered from our state-of-the-art [[International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) campus and across a network of 30 regional centres.
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National College of Ireland has evolved from modest beginnings. Starting from Ranelagh’s Sandford Lodge in 1951, The Catholic Workers College as it was known at the time, addressed key societal issues of the day: economic development, workforce re-skilling, community organisation and social justice.
Lectures were led by a handful of dedicated Jesuits two nights a week, with 103 registered students in the first year. Within 10 years, student numbers had dramatically increased. Links with trade unions deepened, as did formal collaborations with employer and management groups.
By 1966, nearly 1,300 students from union and management backgrounds were learning together at the re-branded National College of Industrial Relations (NCIR). Over the next twenty years, NCIR assumed an educational leadership role in workforce development, industrial relations and social justice issues.
The college re-branded as the National College of Ireland (NCI) in 1998 with an ambitious agenda to reach new and diverse audiences through an expanded National Campus Network and an array of outreach programmes that dotted the Country.
As the College continued to grow rapidly, the land and buildings at Sandford Road were generously transferred by the Jesuits to the NCI Board of Management which transformed the future of the College forever.
NCI embarked on a bold plan to relocate to a site on Mayor Street in the Dublin Docklands. An ambitious €25,000,000 fundraising campaign resulted in the successful development of a distinctive, state-of-the-art campus including 53 residential apartments accommodating 286 students and a new Business and Research Building.
NCI now boasts one of the most exciting third-level campuses in Ireland. The new campus in the IFSC has become a beehive of activity seven-days-a-week for 5,000 full and part-time NCI students and over 130 full-time and 220 part-time staff.
The current president of the College is Dr. Paul Mooney.
Today, National College of Ireland is committed to advancing knowledge in its specialist areas of business, HRM, accountancy, finance, computing and community studies. Full and part-time courses in these areas are offered through the College’s three Schools; the School of Business, the School of Computing and the School of Community Studies. All full-time programmes are covered under the free-fees initiative and the Higher Education Grant Scheme.
Reflecting the Jesuit value of social justice on which it was founded, National College of Ireland focuses on widening participation in higher education and on providing a student experience that allows individual potential to be fully realised.
A recent report by the OECD on the Irish third level education system commended the college on its commitment to part-time learners.
Degrees and certificates awarded by the college are accredited by HETAC, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council, a government body that validates educational awards in the Irish non-university sector.
The NCI hurling team have made it to the all Ireland 1/4 finals