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example, UCD is potentially a world leader in R&D and the School of Business intends to dovetail with courses such as those currently offered in the Smurfit School, in association with Bord Bia, to enhance the overall offering for students. In 2012, the School launched a new MSc in Digital Marketing. This has attracted very strong demand in its first two years and symbolises the focused direction of its portfolio in the area of digital business and society. Similarly, the MSc in Business Analytics has gone from strength to strength. In 2013-14, about half of the Smurfit School’s graduate students will come from overseas. In an open economy such as Ireland’s, dependent on exports and international relationships, this creates a very valuable learning experience for its students. The planned introduction of aviation leasing into the mix is a perfect example of allying the School’s core expertise in accounting and finance with the courses provided by other faculties. In this instance, the School of Law already offers a module in aviation regulation and the Dean believes the joint initiatives planned
INNOVATION AT UCD
GLOBAL CLASSROOM
A core part of the strategy involves the creation of a dedicated Global Classroom IT centre, underpinned by a nextgeneration technology platform to enable virtual learning. This new €30m enterprise will allow the school to increase its geographical reach, which in turn will enhance its reputation. It also reflects the technological reality faced by students before they come to the School and when they graduate. On a recent trip to Canada, Professor Ó hÓgartaigh could only marvel at the “spanking new” €145m facilities of its Canadian CEMS partner underpinned by significant private funding. Although his own ambitions are altogether more modest, he believes building a centre for future technologies and providing much-needed infrastructure for learning that transcends geographic boundaries, will play an integral part in
helping to ensure the School remains relevant in international terms. The Dean envisages the planned new initiative will shape the future of learning and, will be available to all of the university’s 25,000-plus students, quickly becoming the go-to place for the testing of new learning technologies and the development of e-learning modules “so that from being behind the curve, they are ahead of it”. It would also facilitate “blended” learning where students benefit from education delivered both in-person and through state-of-the-art technology linking them with similar education centres on other continents. Professor Ó hÓgartaigh is also blunt about the prospects for the School without such an initiative. “We recognise business education is changing and will continue to change dramatically over the next decade or more, primarily because of new technologies,” he says. “Leading universities we would not have seen as our competition in our backyard are now very much so because of their investment in distance and blended learning technologies. We feel we have
AVIATION FINANCE INSTITUTE: READY FOR TAKE-OFF
In the 1970s, Tony Ryan, a young Aer Lingus executive, pioneered the growth of an entire new market and Guinness Peat Aviation (GPA ) propelled Ireland into an unlikely world leader in the lucrative aviation leasing sector. The company’s demise in 1991 was as dramatic as its dizzying rise to prominence; collateral damage of the destabilisation in the Middle East caused by the Iraq war of the time. But strong foundations were in place and former GPA executives used their specialist knowledge to build one of the great unsung success stories of modern industrial Ireland. “Largely as a result of an ecosystem that emerged from GPA , Ireland has developed the diverse skills essential to success in aircraft leasing,” says
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with the business school will create a unique multidisciplinary course of likely interest to industry professionals seeking career development and students looking to enter a vibrant sector.
Professor Eamonn Walsh of UCD Smurfit School. Although firmly established, with an estimated 50 per cent of the global leasing sector’s share of annual airplane deliveries now managed through Ireland, the industry is about to change dramatically over the next decade, primarily driven by demand in Asia. This is where the proposed Aviation Finance Institute comes in. “There is likely to be a demand for professional management training and developing skill sets to successfully navigate the Asian markets in particular,” Professor Walsh says. “The knowledge base for aviation finance includes law, taxation, finance and engineering – this is homegrown intellectual capital. “While professionals from these disciplines are most likely to join the
UCD CONNECTIONS ALUMNI MAGAZINE
industry, there is a need for interdisciplinarity as successful transactions are likely to involve optimal combinations of these individual disciplines.” Professor Walsh illustrates the complex nature of the aviation leasing business by pointing out the complexities involved in instances where an operator defaults on a loan. “Even in cases where the loan documents have been carefully drafted, there are so many considerations before commissioning a crew to fly a plane out of an airport thousands of miles away from Ireland: compliance with international law; possible negotiation of local taxes and outstanding landing charges and assessment of airworthiness to name but a few.” Typically, professionals in the industry would be expected to have a thorough knowledge of aircraft finance, credit risk analysis, the legal and tax issues associated