Member's Zone

Trainees's Zone

Dublin City University
School of Communications

Key Personnel

Brian Trench, Head of School, and director, MSc in Science Communication.
Dr Helena Sheehan, Lecturer in Philosophy of Science.
John O’Sullivan, Lecturer in Science Journalism.

Institutional profile

Dublin City University is Ireland’s youngest university, having been established as the National Institute for Higher Education in 1978, and designated as a university in 1988. The School of Communications is the only university department in Ireland that specialises in mass communication and journalism, and has a widely recognised leadership role in teaching and research in these areas. It offers three undergraduate programmes and six postgraduate programmes, and hosts the Society Technology and Media (STeM) research centre that investigates social aspects of digital media and of scientific and technological developments.
Since 1996, the School has offered a Masters in Science Communication, the only qualification of its kind in Ireland. This programme was delivered jointly with Queen’s University Belfast (UK), but, from September 2003, will be delivered by DCU on its own. The programme covers social, historical, philosophical and political aspects of science, media and fictional representations of science, and communications theories and practices. Graduates of the programme work in science and medical journalism, broadcasting, web editing, educational software, science teaching, science centres, public relations, and many other domains related to science communication. The School established the BioSciences and Society group in 2002, with two full-time researchers, affiliated to the National Institute for Cellular Biotechnology at DCU.