One Thing to know about UCD Access & Lifelong Learning in 2024
Who are you guys?
We are UCD Access & Lifelong Learning. We support students from diverse backgrounds:
- Students with disabilities
- Low-income students
- Mature students
- Part-time learners
- QQI-FET students
- Refugees/Asylum seekers
While doing this, we also work to enable UCD to fully realise its ambition to be a University for All, where access and inclusion is everyone’s business. So our mission is twofold: to directly support students and to support UCD on its journey to becoming a University for All.
Where do you fit in in the broader UCD picture?
With supporting so many students, the team is in frequent communication with a wide variety of colleagues across campus, particularly module coordinators and student advisers on reasonable accommodations for students, the Registry for admissions planning for the target student groups and assessment planning, and Estates Services for campus accessibility.
Through the University for All strategic initiative, we are embedding Universal Design across the University. Through the implementation of Universal Design, UCD can remove systemic barriers and level the playing field so that all students can have an inclusive student experience. The members of Widening Participation Committee, supported by Access & Lifelong Learning, are at the forefront of this work to embed inclusion across all programme areas and support units. We run a lot of workshops for colleagues focusing on Universal Design, digital accessibility, and inclusive practice.
We also have a whole suite of part-time offerings: Open Learning, Access Courses and Lifelong Learning for students to avail of – next year we will be celebrating 75 years of Lifelong Learning.
What would you like to make your colleagues aware of coming into 2024?
Tough question because we are working on so many things right now! Our Partnership Programmes have been doing a lot of work behind the scenes this trimester which will start to emerge like buds in Spring. The Faculty Partners are starting a large-scale UDL module redesign project across a wide variety of programmes and will be digging into issues related to AI and inclusive assessment. The Professional Staff Partners will beginning to implement Universal Design in student supports and services and will be getting colleagues excited about new Universal Design Beyond the Classroom Digital Badge. The Student Partners will be running the University for All Roadshow in February, spreading the message of inclusion and belonging to the student body. We’ll be showcasing all this fantastic work at our Symposium in May. Keep an eye out for our University for All Survey which will be running in February as well. We’ll be asking all UCD colleagues and students to complete this survey to gauge our progress since 2020 when the last time it was run.
Reach out to us on all@ucd.ie or universityforall@ucd.ie if you have any questions or want to collaborate with us.
