Hugh Brady came to the job of President of UCD with a 'can do' attitude, cultivated at Harvard. He's done a lot, but there's a lot more to do in the State's largest university.
The new UCD president, Dr Hugh Brady, is now 100 days in office. Much of it has been spent rousing what has been called the "sleeping giant" of the Irish university sector. UCD, the largest university in the State, has been operating within a comfort zone, he says. But the "Brady revolution" is determined to achieve major change.
On his first day in office, Dr Hugh Brady, said that he was not interested in courting popularity; his job as chief executive of the largest university in the State was to achieve real change.
He has been true to his word. Twenty-two committees which reported to the Governing Authority have been abolished. New selection procedures are in place for all senior appointments. A new management team is being put in place.
Brady is the head of a community which numbers more than 25,000 staff and students. It is like running a town the size of Bray, he says. He is working 14 hours per day. At one recent meeting he told staff there that, contrary to rumour, he did not expect them to rise at 4.30 a.m. each day. Not everyone is certain he was joking.
Brady, the former deputy director of medicine at Harvard, has been an academic high-flyer since graduating from UCD in 1980. He has spent much of working life abroad in Boston and Toronto. Five minutes in his company and you can sense that North American "can do" approach.
He has spent much of the past 100 days talking to staff in each faculty as well as administrative and other support staff. There is a virtual consensus, he says, that UCD has been punching below its weight.
"We have allowed ourselves to become something of a sleeping giant. The challenge now is to realise our true potential . . . to raise the bar for ourselves. The challenge is to become the best university in Ireland and one of the top 30 in Europe".
Like all other third-level chief executives, Brady has been coming to terms with the effective 10 per cent cut in day-to-day spending. He reckons UCD is operating with about 50 per cent of the capital available to universities of comparable size such as Nottingham and Edinburgh. "There is a danger that UCD could become a no-frills university where we are unable to move beyond the large group teaching model. Internationally, colleges are drifting away from this into smaller teaching units. We must be able to do this. "
Working within a tight budget is very different from his days in Harvard. "If a world-leader in medicine or whatever was available we could guarantee them a professorship and recruit them within a week, if necessary. In UCD, it could take up to one year to achieve the same end as the appointment meanders through committees and administration. The organisation is more complicated than it needs to be. We have to change that."
The first item on the agenda for Brady is what he calls a "radical overhaul of our teaching and learning. We need to give students a range of much more imaginative options. It is virtually impossible for a science student to take a business or law or languages module. We need to be much more flexible. We need to recognise how students need a richer, more varied experience".
Brady says UCD must also come to appreciate how it now faces intense national and international competition for the best and the brightest. "We need to regain our place in the engine room, driving economic, cultural and social change in this country. We have to ask hard questions about why our points requirements for courses like science and engineering are falling.
"As an institution, we have failed to take on board the intensity of the competition. Some of us have tended to operate within a comfort zone.The good news is that our new vision is securing almost unanimous support from staff. We are psyched up for the challenge ahead."
Brady has also moved to shake up UCD's labyrinthine management structure. There is no longer any place for the scores of committees set up by the 40-member governing body to investigate every nook and cranny of UCD's activities. The former IDA chief, Kieran McGowan, has been installed as the new chairman.
Brady also wants to make dramatic changes to the entrance of UCD, which he says lacks definition. "Visitors are confronted with some old skips at the back of a faculty building. We can and must do better. We must project a feeling of excitement and excellence. I want to see 5,000 students and academics (more than double the current figure) living on the campus, creating a new sense of collegiality. I want to see former students, the people of Dublin and elsewhere coming here for academic, sporting and cultural events."
Brady is already detecting signs of vibrant new life on the campus. "There is evidence of a surge in our research activities. UCD is forging fresh links with the corporate sector and will continue to do so, provided we retain full academic freedom," he says.
After 100 days it is a case of so far, so good for the new president, whose term of office will take him to 2014. He has been heartened by the positive response from staff at all levels to his agenda for change. His e-mail is buzzing with feedback, novel ideas and suggestions from colleagues.
He knows that there are some begrudgers out there lying in the long grass. There are those in Belfield who says he is over-ambitious and unrealistic.
But he is pressing on. "I am focused, very focused on the task in hand. Yes , there will be bumps along the road. But I took the job on the basis of a new vision and I am sticking with it."
The First 100 Days: Some key changes at UCD
Since coming to office, Dr Hugh Brady has sought to introduce some notable changes to the way in which several key positions at the college are filled. He has. . .
Changed the job description and selection process for the appointment of the university's registrar and vice-president of research. These are two of the most senior positions in the university, and are both now chosen by means of an international search and selection.
As a result of this change, the position of registrar has been refocused to become a vice-presidency for teaching and learning.
The vice-president for research has been given the task of addressing UCD's relative underperformance in national and international research competition. The aim of this is to re-establish UCD as a leading international research-intensive university.
Brady has implemented a Career Evaluation and Development Programme for all staff, both academic and administrative. This includes the establishment of linear career-paths for all academics, from college lecturer to professor. The aim of this is to establish career-paths based on open and transparent criteria.
He has won the approval of colleagues and UCD's governing authority to produce plans to redevelop the entrance to the Belfield Campus, which is UCD's main entrance on the Stillorgan Road. This forms part of a larger plan by Brady to make the college campus more welcoming to prospective students, parents, alumni and friends. He also hopes to celebrate UCD's past achievements and the role it plays in Ireland's development, while also presenting a "vision of the future which radiates ambition and a commitment to the discovery process."
He has instigated the move to a student-centred, 24-hour campus by introducing a 24-hour reading-room facility and making the position of student societies officer a permanent, full-time position.
He has appointed Derry-born Liam Kennedy as the Republic's first professor of American studies. Currently at Birmingham University, Kennedy's appointment has, Brady says, internationalised UCD's academic portfolio at a significant moment in the history of the relationship between Ireland and the US.
In an attempt to emphasise the importance of student life at UCD, Brady has created the position of vice president for students. Mary Clayton, the first person to hold the title, was appointed in January. She is a former professor of Medieval English, and has responsibility for all non-academic aspects of student life at UCD. These include student facilities, sporting facilities, counselling and other support services.
She has also been given overall responsibility for the review of the campus development plan.
John Downes
