Be a Future Mogul at Technological University Dublin
- Originally published
- Last updated on July 24th, 2023 at 01:09 am
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Before 2019, Dublin Institute of Technology served students looking for degrees in fields like product design, architecture, engineering, and digital media. Today, that university is no more. But its functions all exist as part of a newly consolidated, much broader Technological University Dublin. Ireland’s first technological university, students here have access to all the history and expertise of the institute’s past, plus an eye on the future. There’s a faculty of arts and humanities now, and an overall focus on bringing career-ready prowess to fields across both sides of its students’ brains.
We’re looking at some of the basics so you can get a feel for whether you’re meant to take your place among TU Dublin students. But if you’re not sure if Ireland is right for you, find out what you’ll need to know to go to college in Ireland, and how Irish programs differ from the US.
The Basics of Technological University Dublin
Degrees: BA, BSc, BBS, BBus, BE, BEng, BArch
Majors: 108+ level 8 degrees including unique offerings in farm-to-table culinary arts (Botanical Cuisine), Digital Forensics & Cyber Security, Computer Science with Artificial Intelligence, Fine Art, Event Management, International Business, Physics with Data Science, and Sustainable Timber Technology. The school excels in STEM offerings, but is growing its base of majors as it consolidates multiple schools with different specialties under one umbrella.
Location: Dublin city, Dublin
Cost for out-of-EU: €13,500-€14,500 (€21886 for Human Nutrition & Dietetics) annually
On-campus housing cost: From €99 per week in a shared room to €310 per week for an ensuite single. Rooms can be booked by the semester at the weekly rate.
FAFSA Funds: No
Abroad from abroad: Yes, Erasmus+ and its program countries both within Europe and across the globe
Student body: 29,700 students making it runner-up to the largest public university in Ireland. They represent 138 countries across 5 campuses, with about 6,000 international students.
Five adjectives: Impersonal, Large, Anonymous, Emerging, Occupational
Life in Grangegorman and Dublin, Ireland
Forgive Technological University Dublin for being a little bit scattered.
While its roots go as far back as 1887, today’s incarnation formed in 2019 as a coalition of institutes of technology came together to gain university status. Therefore, you’ll find a main campus at Grangegorman, Dublin, with auxiliary sites in Tallaght and Blanchardstown. There are also nods to the institution’s past in two other locations, urban buildings on Aungie Street and Bolton Street.
Luckily, except for the school’s Aviation Technology Center, most locations are within spitting distance from central Dublin, and most are in the process of consolidating around the Grangegorman site—the instance, the business school relocated all classes from central Dublin in 2023.
The Grangegorman campus lies on the northwest side of town, west of the famous O’Connell Street and near Smithfield’s popular shopping and nightlife.
By bike, it’s ten minutes from the famous General Post Office of Dublin, where the Easter Rising heralded Irish independence from Britain.
You’ll find you’re cycling through urban streets lined with three and four-story red brick buildings, helped by a bike lane and a smattering of shops where you can find everything from Brazilian imported snacks to fish and chips when your energy runs out. Can’t handle the trek? The red Luas train line takes you downtown in no time. There are also plenty of buses running through the area. You can even take Luas east to the Point and hop a ferry to the UK or France, making the TUD campus incredibly friendly for students who will be using public transportation to get around town.
You’ll have easy access to vibrant and iconic spots, like Temple Bar and the surrounding streets, which overflow with tourists, students, locals, buskers, and businesspeople all mixing together.
The Dublin City Center was definitely the place to go for a night out with friends and every night was always an adventure for us! When I wasn’t traveling to see other places in Ireland, I met so many interesting people in central Dublin in the Temple Bar area.
Student Life Near Campus
There isn’t much reason to leave the neighborhood, however. A tipsy stroll from student accommodation is Bonobo, on the south side of campus in Smithfield. With its dark pub interior and enormous outdoor space, lined with plants and ivy, it’s the perfect place to catch up with friends without making the trek to Dublin’s center city.
Urban essentials, including multiple supermarkets and shops, surround the campus. In between classes, check out the Happy Days coffee truck. Its reflective silver Airstream trailer is a beacon for weary students seeking warm, toasted sandwiches and caffeine. Fridays are vegan days, so you can plan your cinnamon roll consumption accordingly. On the northside, hit up the irreverent Bang Bang café and take a walk along the Royal Canal, a disused water route that serves as a scenic bike path stretching halfway across Ireland.
Lest you think TUD is out in the burbs, its surrounding neighborhoods of Phibsboro and Stoneybatter regularly battle for the “coolest” neighborhood title in Time Out magazine’s global roundup. Currently, Phibsboro is on top with good reason: its historical and urban fabric is layered with bohemian shops, snooker lessons, and demo tapes flowing out of the nearby Karate Klub, a collective for punks and their bands. Overall, being so close to the city means endless opportunities to find yourself, but the ten-minute commute means you can appreciate this neighborhood on its own as an evolving, multilayered onion with tons of history and diversity of its own.
Campus + Housing at Technological University Dublin
Locals may gripe about the mega campus planned for Grangegormon and how it will change their landscape, but so far, students have integrated into the campus seamlessly, and many like to live and study on the expansive green campus.
They cluster around Central Quad, East Quad, and the classical Lower House – mega-buildings housing multiple programs of study with labs, lectures, and performance halls. You can practice your clarinet or ballet dancing in Lower House and then indulge in a roast “carvery” dinner at the cafeteria.
Rathdown House typifies campus. It’s a traditional stone building retrofitted with modern wood and steel stylings inside, housing many administrative offices you may need, including student health services. Park House, a depressing modern block, houses the library and support services, from disability services to the academic writing center.
There’s even a gorgeous new custom-built gym and sports facility that reflects the high sports participation of students.
Overall, the neighborhood is more urban than a college town, with students saying the campus resembles a railway station rather than a student residence.
Nonetheless, there’s tons of student accommodation here, and many students live near Gorgegorman. The most affordable shared student accommodation is at JB’s Student Campus, a 15-minute walk from campus, further afield from Dublin City. Its tiny rooms in two-story red brick blocks with red carpets are sparse, clean, and uninviting. Other accommodations follow the theme. All are independently run, so you’ll apply as a student using your acceptance credentials, but shouldn’t expect you’ll be living with other freshers in your program. There are also homestays (rentals in others’ homes) and in-town rentals from private owners of individual units.
As with every university near the capital, housing is a tough nut to crack, and expensive by all accounts.
Academics and Ranking at TU Dublin
Despite its technological name, you’ll find a wide array of traditional subjects at TU Dublin, like art & design, architecture, business, music, drama, social sciences, sport, and even culinary and food sciences. It’s the go-to school for applied sciences, so students seeking careers in engineering, physics with data science, or game design will find specific courses taught by experts who work in their fields.
The course is brilliant. The lecturers are brilliant. They’re always teaching you something new, and they’re always happy to help.
The programs are traditional, with lectures and assignments culminating in high-stakes student exams at the end of the term. But they’re also all practice-based, with practical skills and hands-on learning emphasized.
Because of the large scale of the university, some students say that academic support is slim, with student services overwhelmed or unhelpful. Students who find their course here and want to navigate it without much confusion will find TUD a practical spot to complete their courses. Others, who need more counseling, may find themselves lost in the crowd. However, there is a bonus to being part of the new consolidated Technological University, which brings together the clout and facilities of all of its members.
What the university does well comes from lecturers. They’re great at guiding you through workplace etiquette, showing you the things that always need to be done and how they are done.
Overall, the university ranks #851-#900 in the QS world university rankings, with those ratings elevated by outstanding numbers of both international students and faculty. That does represent a slight tumble from previous years. And The Times ranks TUD in the #1001-#1200 group, where it also stands out on international outlook factors.
Clubs and Societies at TUD
There are almost 100 clubs and societies across the TUD campuses, so there is plenty of student life on campus. Clubs center on sports, with inter-varsity experiences taking participants to other universities nationwide to compete.
However, in most club-level sports, the focus is on training in tandem with friends, and all levels are welcome, so don’t be afraid to give something unfamiliar, from canoeing to women’s rugby, a try. All are welcome, and it’s a great way to stay healthy and met friends (and learn some Irish sports you didn’t have back home, too).
Societies span hundreds of student interests. You can find societies devoted to international students from multiple countries, like the Korean society or Bollywood society, which can bridge the cultural gap for international students and introduce them to new friends in the same boat.
Makeup, live music, and singing societies can help you find people who share your interests, and academic societies can help you move your career ambitions forward. Most students said that joining societies gave them the best friendships they found in college.
The term runs from September to June, broken into two semesters.
Entry Requirements and International Student Applications to TUD
American students can apply with a high school diploma with a GPA of 3.0 and an SAT of 1090 (or ACT score of 21). If you have a 2.4 GPA or above, you can still apply; you’ll need to complete a foundation year with 60-60% grads to continue forward with a level 8 (4-year honors) degree. Submit passport, grading scale, transcripts, and a resumé between November 23 to June 30. You can apply right on the university’s website as a non-EU student. No scholarships are specifically set aside to support international students, but academic and sports scholarships are available.
Tech Not for You? Keep Looking for your Dublin Dream School
We found TUD students enthusiastic about gushing about their school’s programs and how they feel they’re being folded into an existing work world right from the start. And the university does score well in rankings on career placement right from graduation. If that’s important to you, TU Dublin might be your dream school. But if TUD sounds great for its location near the heart of Dublin, and a tough fit otherwise, look into other options from University College Dublin to Dublin City University (and don’t forget Maynooth and Trinity College Dublin).
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Jessica Share
Jessica is the writer, Ph.D., and mom-of-an-abroad-student-in-the-UK at the helm of College Abroad Guides. When she's not asking college students where the coolest place to hang out in their city is, she's figuring out how she can make $60 imported Greek oregano potato chips and £50 British bacon potato chips appear on her doorstep for the cost of a local bag of Lay's.
