Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and Learning

Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
(CASTL) Institutional Leadership Programme
Graduate Education Network

In autumn 2006, the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL), selected 100 higher education institutions to participate in a program to improve undergraduate and graduate education.  The institutions involved are to focus on twelve specific themes related to teaching and learning. 

UCC was selected as a member of the Graduate Education Network and as co-ordinating institution for that network.  The other institutions of the Graduate Education network are:

• The Association of American Geographers
• Central European University, Budapest
• Center for the Integration of Research and Teaching and Learning co-ordinated by the University of Wisconsin at Madison. (The CIRTL network includes Howard University, Washington D.C.; Michigan State University; Penn State University; University of Colorado at Boulder; University of Wisconsin at Madison)
• Howard University, Washington D.C.
• Michigan State University
• Rutgers University, New Jersey

The CASTL Institutional Leadership Program is a three year partnership between the Carnegie Foundation and selected colleges, universities and higher education organisations with a strong commitment to the careful examination of teaching and learning.  Participants were selected for their ability and influence to work in 12 areas, ranging from assessment and accountability to undergraduate research and graduate education. 

All selected institutions have developed and implemented innovative strategies to strengthen teaching and improve student learning in their own campuses.  Through participation in the Carnegie program, they will be expected to collaborate with other institutions to further examine that work and to expand activities in these same areas.

The UCC co-ordinating team for this project consists of Professor John O’Halloran, Chair of the Academic Council Graduate Studies Committee; Professor Peter Kennedy, Vice-President for Research Policy; Prof. Alan Kelly, Dean of Graduate Studies;  Professor Grace Neville, Vice-President (Teaching and Learning); Dr. Norma Ryan, Director of Quality Promotion; Dr. Bettie Higgs and Marian McCarthy, Ionad Bairre (Teaching and Learning Centre); Jennifer Murphy, Project Manager, National Academy for the Integration of Research and Teaching and Learning;  and Professor Áine Hyland, former Vice-President and Professor of Education.

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an independent policy and research centre founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905 and chartered in 1906 by an Act of the (U.S.) Congress.  Its primary mission is “to do and perform all things necessary to encourage, uphold and dignify the profession of the teacher.”  The Foundation, located in Stanford, California, fulfils this mission through its contribution to improvements in education policy and practice.