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Student Placement & Internship Systems Solution

A system for managing the administration of Clinical Placements, Professional Work Experience and Academic Internships to meet the needs of students, staff and employers/host sites. 

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Project Overview

  • A scalable solution for managing clinical placements,academic internships and professional work experience programmes to meet the needs of students, faculty, staff and host/clinical sites.

  • Internship, Professional Work Experience and Placement Programmes operating across the university have grown significantly over the past decade, with over 6,000 students across more than 1,200 employers/clinical sites currently undertaking some form of internship/placement annually. 

In 2022, UCD POST and UCD Careers Network conducted a survey using a third-party vendor (SPARK), to understand user experience and identify ideas for solutions and best practice in systems/processes. 

The SPARK Report identified 6 key recommendations, which were approved by UMT SG,  one of which was that “the university should explore market options and procure a solution to meet the needs of students, faculty and staff in particular”.

This project is seeking to implement this recommendation.  

(opens in a new window)View the full SPARK report.

Project Outcomes

Enhanced educational experience for students

Enhanced staff experience through consolidation of systems and simplification of processes

Enhanced service experience and reputation amongst host employers and clinical sites

Project Timeline

See our key project milestones below.

  • February 9th, 2024

    Steering Committee receives requirements docs for review

  • February 14th, 2024

    Steering Committee review and approval of requirements

  • February 19th, 2024

    Tender Opens

  • March 27th, 2024

    Tender Closes

  • April 1st, 2024

    (week of) Shortlist companies for demos

  • April 8th-12th, 2024

    Demos with shortlisted companies

  • April 15th, 2024

    Make recommendation for presentation to Steering Group

  • 22nd April 2024

    Presentation of Business Case to Steering Group

  • 26th April 2024

    Business Case submission to Registrar and UMT Services Group and UMT IT Strategy Group

Meet Our Project Team

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Professor Colin Scott

Registrar, Deputy President and Vice President for Academic Affairs

Professor Colin Scott was appointed Registrar, Deputy President and Vice President for Academic Affairs for a ten-year term commencing 1 December 2023. He is the executive sponsor for the new Student Placement & Internship Systems Solution.

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Dr David Foster

Project Owner

David is responsible for the strategic and operational development of UCD Careers Network (Belfield and Blackrock campuses). David regularly contributes to institutional working groups in areas such as student and educational experience and represents UCD on the Universitas 21 Employability Group.

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Mark Lande

Solution Provider

Mark is Director of Enterprise Applications, UCD IT Services

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Oonagh Sweeney

Business Manager

Oonagh is University Internship Manager, UCD Careers Network

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Maria McDonald

Project Manager

Maria is Head of Enterprise Application Services, UCD IT Services

Support Hub Homepage

Further Support

The UCD IT Support Hub is where you can log a call with our UCD IT Helpdesk team, find an answer in our Knowledge Base of articles, or request an additional service or access.

UCD IT Services

Computer Centre, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.

Contact us via the UCD IT Support Hub: www.ucd.ie/ithelp