North Sea Catholic University
North Sea Catholic University is a Catholic institute of tertiary education located in Dungannon, Sainte Genevieve. As of 2007, it enrolled 3,250 students in four faculties.
History
North Sea Catholic University was founded in 1924, upon to the merger of Sainte Genevieve's two oldest colleges, St. Conal College (est. 1874 in Dungannon) and College of the Holy Cross (est. 1890 in Farset). Upon establishment, NSCU offered five courses of study: English Language and Literature, History, Mathematics, Psychology and Theology. The very first class met at 8:15am on Monday, 7 September 1925 and had 14 students. Its first commencement was held on 27 April 1929, with 71 students receiving diplomas. For its first five decades, NSCU was the primary destination for Sainte Genevieve residents pursuing higher education, until being overtaken in enrollment and course offerings by the newly established Sainte Genevieve University in the 1970s.
Seeing its prominence diminished, NSCU's Governing Committee established a new mission for the university in 1991. Reinventing itself as a small, selective university offering students a liberal arts education, NSCU became a popular alternative to the much larger Sainte Genevieve University, which had focused its growth on trade, technical and professional programs throughout the 1980s. NSCU also increased the availability of on-campus residence, and partnered with other Catholic universities in Europe and North America to offer affordable and relevant international exchange programs.
Throughout the 1990s, NSCU benefitted from increasing enrollment and expansion of degree options. In 1999, celebrating its 75th anniversary, Pope John Paul II held a mass in St. Brendan's Chapel. 1999 was also the year that enrollment surpassed 3,000 students. In 2002, the John Braden College of Law opened its doors, the first major expansion of the university in ten years.
Academic Programs
The university consists of three undergraduate faculties and one graduate faculty:
- Faculty of Humanities
- Department of Architecture
- Department of Art and Art History
- Department of English Language and Literature
- Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures
- Center for Classical and Ancient Studies
- Center for Celtic Studies
- Department of Theatre and Performing Arts
- Department of Theology and Religious Studies
- Faculty of Natural Sciences
- Department of Chemistry
- Department of Geosciences
- Department of Mathematics and Statistics
- Department of Physics
- Faculty of Social Sciences
- Department of Economics
- Department of History
- Department of Political Science
- Department of Psychology
- Department of Sociology and Criminology
- Center for Aging Studies
- John Braden College of Law