Dublin City University (DCU) is Ireland’s university of Enterprise. Situated on an 85 acre active and rewarding campus, which is full of student life, sports and leisure facilities, DCU has grown rapidly in scale and performance since being established as a university in 1989. With the city just a 10-minute bus drive away, students of DCU have the best of both worlds; the social and cultural benefits of city life, but with the security and vibrancy of a university campus built very much for today. DCU prides itself on delivering excellence across all of its activities. DCU, with a student population of almost 11,500 and close to 2,000 non-Irish students from 116 different countries, is recognised as centre of academic excellence in education and research. The university is young, vibrant and voted as Sunday Times University of the Year 2010. Unconventional by nature, DCU broke with the traditional mould and introduced new approaches into the Irish education system. With a focus on enterprise and a determination to hold the position as Ireland’s most innovative and market driven university, DCU has created a unique position for itself in Ireland. It promotes research and encourages entrepreneurship through a state of the art.

The university has five campuses:

• Glasnevin Campus
• Sports Campus
• Innovation Campus
• St Patrick’s Campus in Drumcondra
• All Hallows Campus

• Business School

  DCU Business School is Ireland’s most ambitious business school, part of Ireland’s ‘University of Enterprise’, Dublin City University. We are consistently recognised in international rankings of young and globally-engaged universities. The dynamic and vibrant ethoses of these universities of the future imbue all aspects of our activities. Through our teaching, our research and our engagement with industry we proactively contribute to the development of individuals, industry and society at home and abroad. 

• Faculty of Science & Health

  The Faculty Administration Team is the critical interface for many of the operations and processes that are an essential part of the Faculty and University mission.

  The primary function of the Faculty Administration Team is to provide effective administrative support and infrastructure for Faculty and constituent School and Centre operations. The Faculty Administration Team also contributes to the achievement of the strategic academic and operational objectives of the Faculty of Science & Health.

• Faculty of Engineering And Computing

  The goal of the Faculty is to make a significant contribution to society, locally, nationally, and internationally through the capabilities of its graduates, the scholarly output and commercial derivatives of its research, professional influence, and continuing education and professional development. To that end the Faculty is a scholarly community dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge in selected areas of Engineering and Computing, and engagement with significant national and global opportunities.

• Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

  The Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is known for offering degree programmes based on structured inter-disciplinarity, grounded in societal and economic need, which produce well-rounded graduates with good transferable skills; and which are attractive to students and employers. We offer a supportive, innovative learning environment and our students have real engagement with our research active staff, both in class room contexts and in individual advice sessions.

  Our research, published in leading international journals and books, aims to provide an evidence base to meet important societal challenges, reflecting DCU's commitment to a high level of public engagement. Under the DCU Incorporation Programme the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences is going through a process of enhancement and enlargement which enables the Faculty to offer a broad range of programmes.

The institution was created in 1975, on an ad hoc basis, and on 18 June that year Dr Danny O'Hare was made acting director of the institution, and a day later the first governing body met. It was intended at this stage that the institution become the unified structure under which the colleges of what later became Dublin Institute of Technology would unite, but by 1978 it became apparent that this would not be the case and instead an independent institution developed with a distinct identity and mission.

Ultimately the title "Dublin City University" was chosen and this was confirmed by the Dublin City University Act of 1989.

The early focus of the institution was, in particular, on science and technology, although it has also had, and has, a large business school. It has recently developed a presence also in the performing arts and in the humanities. 

DCU has been providing adults all over Ireland (and abroad) with flexible access to higher education for over thirty five years. In 1982 the National Distance Education Centre was located at DCU and for many years offered programmes in the traditional ‘distance education’ mode of delivery. It changed to Oscail – DCU Online Education in 2004 to reflect the reality that its programmes were increasingly designed with large elements of online support. 

As of 2015 there are almost 55,000 graduates of Dublin City University.

In admitting students to its programmes, Dublin City University

1. is committed to equality of access to education and does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, disability, race (which includes race, colour, nationality or ethnic or national origins), membership of the Traveller community, or socio-economic background save where quotas may be reserved to ensure participation by underrepresented or targeted groups;
2. adopts and devises admission criteria and procedures appropriate to specific or targeted entry routes;
3. aims to offer clear advice and guidance to prospective applicants to enable them to make informed choices and to apply to courses/programmes appropriate to their interests, academic qualifications and potential;
4. only admits students to academic programmes with which it believes they can successfully engage;
5. is clear and transparent in its admission criteria and procedures;
6. is consistent and fair in implementing its admission procedures.

The university was named Irish University of the Year 2004-2005 by the Sunday Times, UK. It was also ranked No 2in the league table of Irish universities in the same newspaper that year, and 4th in the two subsequent league tables.

The university was one of three establishments of higher education in Ireland which are ranked amongst the top 300 universities worldwide by the Times Higher Education Supplement in 2007-2008.

The university was named "Irish University of the Year" by the Sunday Times newspaper once again for the 2010-2011 academic year.

The university has been named as one of the world’s top 50 universities that are under 50 years old, numerous times, by the QS World University Rankings list.As of 2013, it is ranked 44th in the list.The university currently does not rank on the QS Top 900 World University Rankings.

In DCU we have over 120 different clubs and societies. You can join as many as you like if you have an interest in them. We have sports pitch's which are floodlit (both astro and grass), an athletics running track (and other athletics facilities), a 25 metre pool and sports centre, an indoor sports arena, as well as squash and racket ball courts.

10 Reasons to Choose DCU

1. Academic excellence
2. Employability of our graduates
3. A highly-rated university
4. A focus on supporting every student
5. Our Work Placements and Year Abroad programme
6. Our Generation 21 programme
7. A vibrant student campus
8. A sporting campus
9. Ireland's University of Enterprise
10. We offer choice and flexibility