About TCD
At Trinity College Dublin, the University of Dublin, we provide a liberal environment where independence of thought is highly valued and all are encouraged to achieve their potential. We promote a diverse, interdisciplinary, inclusive environment which nurtures ground-breaking research, innovation, and creativity through engaging with issues of global significance. Located in a beautiful campus in the heart of Dublin’s city centre, Trinity is Ireland’s highest ranked university. It is home to 18,407 undergraduate and postgraduate students across all the major disciplines in the arts and humanities, and in business, law, engineering, science, and health sciences. Trinity’s tradition of independent intellectual inquiry has produced some of the world’s finest, most original minds including the writers Oscar Wilde and Samuel Beckett (Nobel laureate), the scientists William Rowan Hamilton and Ernest Walton (Nobel laureate), the political thinker Edmund Burke, and the former President of Ireland and UNHCR Mary Robinson. This tradition finds expression today in a campus culture of scholarship, innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship and dedication to societal reform.
Survey Live: 7 March – 28 March 2023
Each participating institution selects a specific three-week period during February and March to open the survey for their students. This allows the national survey to take account of local events and other demands on students’ time in order to increase the benefit of the survey at local level – “national survey, local impact“.
Meet the Survey Team
Catherine McCabe
Dean of Students
Catherine McCabe is the Dean of Students in Trinity and is available to answer any questions you may have in relation to the survey.
Contact Email: deanstu@tcd.ie
Gabrielle Fullam
Student Union President
Gabrielle Fullam is the President of the Trinity Students’ Union and is available to answer any questions you may have in relation to the survey.
Contact Email: president@tcdsu.org
Roisin Smith
Quality Officer
Roisin Smith is the Trinity Quality Officer and is available to answer any questions you may have in relation to the survey.
Contact Email: Quality.Officer@tcd.ie
20-25%
Participation across Trinity cohorts in recent years, rising to 34% in 2020
28-30%
First Year students participation rates, rising to 43% in 2020
13%
Increase in internationally domiciled student respondents, from 14% in 2016 to 27% in 2020
Most impactful use of the survey data for TCD
StudentSurvey.ie data have been used to support college-wide strategic initiatives including:
Transition to Trinity Programme – an expanded induction/orientation programme delivered over twelve weeks aimed at improving the first -year experiences and assist students make the transition from second-level to third-level education. The frequency of provision of orientation/ induction programmes for students commencing at times other than September, e.g. Postgraduate Research Students commencing in January or March has also been expanded to meet their needs.
Enhancement to meeting the informational needs of students on the requirements for their programme of study has been an area of focus in Trinity. In 2017/18 in response to the PGR StudentSurvey.ie – the Office of the Dean of Graduate Studies released a Postgraduate Research Handbook which provides key information to students on the requirements for the structured PhD programme. From the 2019/20 academic year Trinity has introduced a requirement that Schools provide an annual progress report to Academic Registry for all continuing PhD students. Trinity introduced a Programme Handbook Policy in 2017/18 and added two additional questions in the 2018/19 Survey to monitor the implementation and impact of the Programme Handbook Policy, exploring student use of Programme Handbooks as a key source of information on their programme of study.
The Trinity Education Project has introduced a number of enhancements under the broad umbrella of Assessment, these include the introduction of semesterised exams in 2018/19 in response to student feedback. Trinity has also explored student workload at module and programme level and sought to re-balance formative, continuous and summative assessment. From September 2019, Trinity introduced the requirement that all postgraduate research students have a Thesis Committee, the role of the Thesis Committee is to monitor and advise on the academic progress of the PhD student throughout the lifespan of the student’s Structured PhD.
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