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The Dean

Professor Ciarán Ó'hÓgartaigh is currently the Dean of UCD School of Business, which includes UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School and UCD Quinn Business School.

The Dean’s Message

Welcome to UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, Ireland’s global business school, forming global minds.

We are Ireland’s global business school because, as one of the world’s most open economies, Ireland has a particular perspective on the world; one which is open to new ideas and to the world.

The excellence of the education you will get here is well-recognised internationally. We are your gateway to the world because we are the only business school in Ireland which has achieved the triple crown of international accreditations from EQUIS, AACSB and AMBA: your guarantee of a quality degree. 

We are also the only business school in Ireland whose degrees are consistently ranked amongst the top 100 in the world. 
Ireland faces challenging times as a country. We have a lot to learn and therefore a lot to teach from our recent experience.  We hope you learn these lessons here, lessons about resilience in business and about individual and organisational values which sustain the future.

Your achievements here will be shaped by us – but also to a great extent by you.  I hope you make the most of the opportunities we can offer.

About The Dean

 A first class honours BComm graduate of NUI Galway, Professor Ciarán Ó hÓgartaigh qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Arthur Andersen (Dublin) and holds a PhD in Accounting from the University of Leeds.

A former Fullbright Fellow at Northeastern University (Boston), he has published widely on financial reporting and on accounting history in international peer-reviewed publications.  His recently published chapter on Financial Accounting Practice in The Companion to Accounting History, published by Routledge, has been described as a ‘substantial tour de force’ by Gary Previts, President of the American Accunting Association (2008-09).

Ciarán has led executive and professional education programmes across the Irish public and private sectors.  He has also served as an expert witness in financial reporting in leading tax and commercial law cases.

Professor Ó hÓgartaigh joined UCD in January 2008 from the School of Accounting and Commercial Law at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.  Prior to that, he was Theme Leader for Business and Innovation at Dublin City University (2004-2006) and Associate Dean for Research at DCU Business School (2003-2004).  He also served on the University Executive of DCU (2002-2006) and on the DCU budget committee (2003-2006).

In the three years since his appointment as Professor and Chair of Accountancy at UCD, he has led the development of the research and teaching portfolio of the accounting discipline at the university.  In collaboration with colleagues, these developments have included the launch of a new post-graduate programme in strategic management accounting and the Denis O’Connor KPMG Doctoral Scholarship in Accounting as well as an international collaboration in undergraduate teaching with faculty at the McIntire School, the University of Virginia.

Professor Ó hÓgartaigh currently serves on the Executive and the Finance Committee of the UCD School of Business.  He also chairs UCD’s Fee Setting and Charges Committee.