SDG 4 : Quality Education

Students leave Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) degree programmes for many different reasons, making it difficult for universities to identify those who may need additional support before they disengage. AID-STEM is investigating whether national-level data combined with more localised information about students' experiences can help identify that risk earlier. 

Led by Dr Jason Power with Professor David Tanner and external collaborator Dr Jeffrey Buckley, the project is developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-supported approach to identifying factors associated with STEM dropout. 

It combines national data covering more than 132,000 student cases across seven years with a specialised diagnostic survey examining factors including socio-economic background, previous academic achievement, early university grades, motivation, problem-solving skills and students' sense of belonging. 

Primary field data collection, survey piloting and site-specific AI model testing involve University of Limerick and Technological University of the Shannon. 

The Higher Education Authority is the project's national data partner and supplies the multi-year datasets, while Enterprise Ireland seed funding supported early preparation and security infrastructure. 

The research aims ultimately to provide universities and policymakers with an early-warning approach that can identify students at greater risk of leaving STEM and support earlier, more targeted intervention.

Sustainability reporting is becoming an increasingly important part of accounting and auditing, requiring future professionals to understand how organisations report on environmental and social issues alongside financial performance. 

On 7 March 2025, Kemmy Business School's Accountability Research Cluster (ARC) and MSc in Accounting programme hosted the School's first Sustainability Reporting Workshop. The workshop brought academic, regulatory and professional perspectives into the classroom. 

Speakers were Dr John Garvey of University of Limerick (UL); Eileen Townsend of the Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority (IAASA); Deirdre McDonnell of the Compliance Institute; and Derarca Dennis of EY. 

Presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session and discussion, giving students an opportunity to engage with different perspectives on sustainability reporting and its growing role within accounting and auditing.

Food systems, human health and climate change are closely connected, making climate literacy increasingly relevant to the education of nutrition and dietetics professionals. 

In 2025, graduating students on University of Limerick's MSc Human Nutrition and Dietetics programme took part in a Climate Fresk workshop as part of their professional education. 

Climate Fresk is a collaborative, science-based learning activity built around evidence from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. 

Through facilitated discussion and systems thinking, students explored the drivers and consequences of climate change and considered connections between climate change, food systems and health. 

The workshop also encouraged students to reflect on the role dietitians can play in supporting sustainable and healthy food systems and how environmental sustainability could be considered within their future professional practice.

Volunteering can give students practical experience of social and environmental issues, but the connection between individual volunteering activities and wider sustainability challenges is not always obvious. 

In 2025, Student Volunteer Ireland, a national programme hosted at University of Limerick, developed new ways to make that connection explicit. 

Through work funded under Ireland's National Volunteering Strategy 2021–2025, Student Volunteer Ireland developed a framework connecting student, staff and charity volunteering with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Its national StudentVolunteer.ie platform was updated so that volunteering projects could be tagged to the SDGs they support. More than 570 projects are listed on the platform, which has recorded more than 100,000 student volunteer hours. 

Student Volunteer Ireland also delivered the Irish Aid-funded Roots and Shoots Global Citizenship Education programme through workshops, conferences and residential activities. More than 250 students took part, exploring connections between their volunteering, global challenges and the SDGs.

People outside education, employment or training can face barriers to returning to learning. The Diploma in Community Wellness, Empowerment, Leadership and Lifeskills (CWELL) is a University of Limerick (UL) programme co-designed with communities in Limerick to create pathways back into education, employment and community participation. It works with more than 30 local community groups and organisations, including participants from areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The programme combines learning in physical and mental wellbeing with leadership, advocacy and life skills, with the aim of supporting personal and community development and creating pathways towards further education, employment and community leadership. Local communities are directly involved in the programme, contributing to student recruitment, teaching, assessment, project design and delivery. CWELL is supported by Limerick City and County Council and the UNESCO-sponsored Knowledge for Change global consortium. In 2025, students also applied their learning through community-based capstone projects addressing issues including energy poverty, local heritage and community gardening.

Software can be designed around more than technical performance. In September 2025, University of Limerick's Dr Colin Venters joined an international teaching team at Universidad de Lima in Peru for a Winter School exploring how software design can take account of human emotion, wellbeing and sustainability. 

Around 20 to 25 competitively selected students took part in the intensive, team-based programme. Students analysed real datasets and developed projects while learning about emotion-aware system design, machine-learning-based facial emotion recognition and approaches to considering sustainability within software development. 

The programme introduced students to the Sustainability Awareness Framework (SuSAF) and human-centred engineering approaches informed by the Karlskrona Manifesto and non-violent communication. 

Rather than considering software primarily in terms of speed and efficiency, the programme encouraged students to examine its wider effects on people and society. 

The winter school brought together teaching expertise from Universidad de Lima, University of Limerick, Chalmers University of Technology, LUT University and Universidade da Coruña, with support from ACM SIGSOFT.

University learning environments are typically associated with enrolled students, but access to learning does not have to end there. The Glucksman Library at University of Limerick (UL) works with Down Syndrome Limerick to provide a regular book club for adults with Down syndrome, creating an inclusive space for shared reading, creative activities and social interaction. Through library-based sessions, members have opportunities to practise literacy skills, make choices about their reading, share ideas and build social connections. Holding the book club at UL also gives participants an opportunity to engage with a university library and its learning environment. The initiative forms part of a wider collaborative approach involving Down Syndrome Ireland and libraries around the country, using shared reading as a way to support learning, participation and connection for adults with Down syndrome.

Climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution and environmental degradation have consequences for human health, from respiratory and cardiovascular illness to food security, mental health and health inequalities. 

They also create new challenges for healthcare systems, making planetary health and sustainability increasingly relevant to the education of future doctors. In 2025, University of Limerick’s (UL) School of Medicine used the international Planetary Health Report Card (PHRC) to benchmark its approach to planetary health and sustainability. 

The student-led initiative assesses medical schools across areas including curriculum, interdisciplinary research, community outreach and advocacy, support for student initiatives and campus sustainability. 

The process identified opportunities to strengthen how these issues are addressed within medical education at UL. The findings led to a collaborative staff-student response. 

UL established a Climate Health and Sustainability Special Interest Group, co-chaired by Enas Elsissy and Vikram Niranjan, and students established Medical Students for the Environment as a registered student society. 

First-year teaching materials and problem-based learning cases were also reviewed and updated to make climate-health and sustainable healthcare concepts more visible within the curriculum. 

The work has also generated recommendations for further integration of climate health and sustainability within third-year Special Study Modules.

Public health professionals increasingly need to consider how health challenges intersect with wider social, environmental and sustainability issues. 

In March 2025, University of Limerick's Centre for Sustainable Futures and Innovation delivered a practical sustainability workshop for MSc Public Health students as part of their Global Health and Sustainable Development module. Delivered by Una McInerney and Elisa Minoue at the invitation of Dr Vikram Niranjan, the workshop introduced students to practical approaches for translating broad sustainability frameworks, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, into action. 

It drew on GreenComp, the European sustainability competence framework. Students worked with three sustainability design tools, the Collaboration Model, Futures Triangle and Ecosystem Mapping, applying them to real-world case studies they were already exploring as part of their studies. 

This allowed them to move beyond discussing sustainability in principle and explore how systems thinking and collaborative approaches could be applied to public health challenges. 

The workshop took place within UL’s BM6052 Global Health and Sustainable Development module, embedding the activity within the students' formal academic programme rather than as an optional extracurricular event.

Embedding Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) across a university means helping teaching staff translate broad sustainability goals into something meaningful within their own disciplines. 

In Semester 1 2025/26, University of Limerick (UL) piloted Foundations in ESD, a six-week, cross-faculty professional development course for staff. 

The course was developed in response to Ireland's second National Strategy for Education for Sustainable Development and brought together expertise from across UL. 

The course team included staff from the Centre for Teaching and Learning, Education and Health Sciences, Kemmy Business School and the Faculty of Science and Engineering, supported by an advisory group representing every faculty. 

Through workshops, peer learning and self-directed activities, participants explored disciplinary examples of ESD and considered how tools and resources could be adapted to their own teaching. 

Foundations in ESD was endorsed by the Higher Education Authority (HEA) National Forum for Teaching and Learning with its own digital badge. Following feedback from the pilot, it will continue as a professional development option for UL staff.

Private tuition can provide valuable additional support to secondary-school students, but its cost can put it beyond the reach of some families. In autumn 2025, University of Limerick (UL) ran a free Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) study club for around 30 students from Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) secondary schools. 

Over seven weeks in October and November, students received weekly support in Leaving Certificate physics, chemistry, biology and maths from undergraduate and postgraduate volunteers from UL's Faculty of Science and Engineering. Between 15 and 20 UL students volunteered as tutors, each giving an hour of their time during the evening sessions. 

The Faculty of Science and Engineering provided transport for participating secondary students to and from UL, while Buildings and Estates provided facilities for the programme. 

Feedback included a participating student reporting that the tuition had helped them feel more prepared and confident in class, while one UL volunteer said they had taken part because they had benefited from private STEM tuition themselves and wanted to make similar support available to someone who might not otherwise be able to afford it.

Accessibility in universities is shaped by how teaching, digital systems, services and physical spaces are designed.  Global Accessibility Awareness Week brings staff and students across University of Limerick (UL) together to examine these issues in everyday university practice. Led by the Educational Assistive Technology Centre, the initiative has run at UL each May since 2022.

In 2025, activities addressed accessibility across digital content and systems, procurement, the physical environment, and teaching and learning. Staff and students from across UL contributed, including Student Life, Marketing and Communications, the Centre for Transformative Learning, Library Services, Disability Services, Access and Widening Participation, Buildings and Estates, Information Technology and staff and students from academic disciplines.

The week's activities included an accessible campus tour and a student research showcase, creating opportunities for participants to examine accessibility in practice as well as learn about approaches being developed across the University.

Controversial issues can enter the classroom through the curriculum, current events, social media or students' own comments. For educators, the challenge is not simply how to discuss subjects such as climate change, migration, racial bias or gender inequality, but how to keep dialogue open while ensuring that students who may feel vulnerable or directly affected are supported. 

In January 2025, the Ubuntu Network, based at University of Limerick (UL), brought together 36 teacher educators from higher education institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) across Ireland to explore these challenges. 

The event was organised with the Education Department at Maynooth University, funded by Irish Aid and supported through the Research Ireland New Foundations Project Sharing the World: Unpacking the Question of Global Citizenship. 

Workshops explored racial bias and microaggressions through case studies and role-play, debating as a tool for listening and critical thinking, philosophically informed approaches to social justice, and the influence of online masculinity influencers on teenage boys. 

Participants were encouraged to engage with uncertainty and disagreement themselves, rather than approaching controversial issues only as problems to be managed in the classroom. 

The event formed part of the Ubuntu Network's wider work supporting global citizenship education in post-primary Initial Teacher Education (ITE) across 13 higher education institutions in Ireland.

Schools seeking to support pupils effectively need reliable evidence of how children's skills and needs develop over time, something a single assessment cannot provide. 

In September 2025, University of Limerick (UL) launched the pilot phase of PRIME, a longitudinal study of children's skills, development and progress across seven Limerick primary schools. 

The project was developed in response to participating schools seeking a robust, evidence-based way to assess pupil development and inform school planning. PRIME, which stands for Pupils Risk/Resilience in Mainstream Education, uses a series of interactive games and activities rather than traditional paper-based surveys. 

Small groups of pupils move through play-based skills stations designed to assess physical and cognitive skills, language and communication, and social and emotional development. 

Assessments are carried out at the beginning and end of the school year, allowing the research team to examine changes in children's skills and progress. 

The pilot involves six DEIS schools in Limerick city, whose catchment areas include some of Ireland's most socio-economically deprived communities, together with one non-DEIS control school. 

Between November and December 2025, almost 450 pupils in junior infants, senior infants and first class were assessed across the six Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) schools. 

Student assessors were recruited and trained to collect and analyse the data, gaining practical experience in applied research. Over time, the study aims to build evidence that can inform school planning and examine the effects of different programmes and interventions. 

An advisory panel of key stakeholders has also been established to review the project's methodology and outcomes.

As Ireland expands renewable energy and other infrastructure, planners and environmental professionals need the skills to assess how new developments could affect landscapes and views. 

The programme responds to an industry-identified gap in formal, consistent training in Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment (LVIA) in Ireland. In 2025, University of Limerick developed Europe's first accredited LVIA micro-credential, designed to equip planners, environmental consultants, engineers and policymakers with specialist skills to assess the landscape and visual impacts of proposed developments. 

Led by Dr Immanuel Darkwa and Dr Gourav Misra, the programme was commissioned and funded by Green Tech Skillnet and developed in partnership with Wind Energy Ireland and the Irish Landscape Institute, with support from Skillnet Ireland, the Government of Ireland and the European Union. 

The programme was officially launched in December 2025 by Timmy Dooley TD, Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Research software underpins work across many academic disciplines, but researchers who develop and maintain it do not always have formal software engineering training. 

In July 2025, Dr Colin Venters of University of Limerick contributed to a hands-on sustainable research software engineering workshop in Cape Town aimed at strengthening these skills. 

Researchers from across South Africa took part in practical sessions covering software sustainability, complexity, design principles, quality and maintainability. 

Participants also worked in groups to examine their own code and discuss challenges they encountered in developing and maintaining research software. The workshop brought together expertise from UL, Chalmers University of Technology, the University of Gothenburg, the South African National Bioinformatics Institute, the University of the Western Cape and the University of Cape Town. 

It formed part of a wider effort to develop research software engineering capacity and professional recognition in South Africa and the wider African region.

As sustainability becomes part of software engineering, students and educators need opportunities to consider energy efficiency and environmental trade-offs alongside other aspects of software design. 

From 5 to 9 May 2025, University of Limerick's (UL) Dr Colin Venters contributed to the Green and Sustainable Software Engineering Summer School at the University of Lagos in Nigeria. 

More than 100 students, educators and industry professionals from Nigeria and abroad participated in person and online. International facilitators explored approaches to energy-efficient coding and sustainable software design, using educational games, decision-making frameworks and case studies to examine environmental trade-offs in software development. 

The summer school also included curriculum co-design and redesign labs, giving educators an opportunity to consider how sustainability could be incorporated into software engineering curricula. 

The programme brought together expertise from the University of Lagos, University of Limerick, Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, LUT University in Finland and Hochschule Furtwangen University in Germany.

Making education inclusive extends to the materials students use every day. In 2025, University of Limerick completed the rollout of Anthology Ally, an accessibility tool within Brightspace, UL’s online learning platform. 

Ally automatically generates alternative formats of course content, including audio, ePub and Immersive Reader. Students can choose how they access material, while lecturers receive feedback on accessibility issues and guidance on addressing them. 

The tool also supports changes in how teaching materials are prepared. By identifying problems such as missing image descriptions, poor colour contrast and unclear heading structures, Ally helps lecturers recognise accessibility issues in existing content and consider them when creating new resources. Reports provide an overview at module and institutional level. 

More than 150 staff received training during 2025 through online and in-person sessions. Online guidance supported lecturers in using Ally, while an October student workshop was advertised to introduce learners to alternative formats.