University College Dublin

University College Dublin (Irish: Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath), commonly referred to as UCD, is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With more than 38,000 students, it is Ireland's largest university.

UCD originates in a body founded in 1854, which opened as the Catholic University of Ireland on the feast of St. Malachy with John Henry Newman as its first rector; it re-formed in 1880 and chartered in its own right in 1908. The Universities Act, 1997 renamed the constituent university as the "National University of Ireland, Dublin", and a ministerial order of 1998 renamed the institution as "University College Dublin – National University of Ireland, Dublin".

Originally located at St Stephen's Green and Earlsfort terrace in Dublin's city centre, all faculties later relocated to a 133-hectare (330-acre) campus at Belfield, six kilometres to the south of the city centre. In 1991, it purchased a second site in Blackrock, which currently houses the Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School. A report published in May 2015 asserted that the economic output generated by UCD and its students in Ireland amounted to €1.3 billion annually.

UCD can trace its history to the institution founded in 1854 as the Catholic University of Ireland. Renamed University College in 1883 and put under the control of the Jesuits in 1883, it became University College Dublin in 1908, a constituent college of the National University of Ireland under the Universities Act.

After the Catholic Emancipation period of Irish history, Archbishop of Armagh attempted to provide, for the first time in Ireland, higher-level education for followers of the Catholic Church and taught by such people. The Catholic hierarchy demanded a Catholic alternative to the University of Dublin's Trinity College, whose Anglican origins the hierarchy refused to overlook. Since the 1780s, the University of Dublin had admitted Catholics to study; a religious test, however, hindered the efforts of Catholics in their desire to obtain membership in the university's governing bodies. Thus, in 1850 at the Synod of Thurles, it was decided to open a university in Dublin for Catholics.

As a result of these efforts, a new "Catholic University of Ireland" opened in 1854 on St Stephen's Green, with John Henry Newman appointed as its first rector. The Catholic University opened its doors on the feast of St Malachy, 3 November 1854. In 1855, the Catholic University Medical School was opened on Cecilia Street.

As a private university, Catholic University was never given a royal charter, and so was unable to award recognised degrees and suffered from chronic financial difficulties. Newman left the university in 1857. In 1861, Bartholomew Woodlock was appointed Rector and served until he became Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise in 1879. Henry Neville was appointed Rector to replace Woodlock.^{[citation needed]}

In 1880, the Royal University of Ireland was established and allowed students from any college to take examinations for a degree.