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[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queens_University_College_at_Cork]
University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork (UCC)[2] (Irish: Coláiste na hOllscoile Corcaigh) is a constituent university of the National University of Ireland. The university is located in Cork.
The university was founded in 1845 as one of three Queen’s Colleges located in Belfast, Cork, and Galway. It became University College, Cork, under the Irish Universities Act of 1908. The Universities Act 1997 renamed the university as National University of Ireland, Cork, and a Ministerial Order of 1998 renamed the university as University College Cork – National University of Ireland, Cork, though it continues to be almost universally known as University College Cork.
The university was named Irish University of the Year by the Sunday Times in 2003, 2005, and 2011. The 2011 QS World University Rankings assigned a 5-star rating to UCC, and ranked the university amongst the top 2% of universities worldwide. Also in 2011, University College Cork became the first university worldwide to achieve the ISO 50001 standard in energy management. UCC ranks 4th worldwide in terms of food research,[8] and in 2013 the medical school was ranked among the top 200 in the world.[9] Dr. Michael B. Murphy has been president of the university since February 2007
Queen's College, Cork, was founded by the provisions of an act which enabled Queen Victoria to endow new colleges for the "Advancement of Learning in Ireland". Under the powers of this act, the three colleges of Belfast, Cork and Galway were incorporated on 30 December 1845. The college opened in 1849 with 23 professors and 181 students and a year later became part of the Queen's University of Ireland.
The original site chosen for the college was particularly appropriate in that it is believed to have had a connection with the patron saint of Cork, Saint Finbarr. His monastery and school of learning were close by at Gill Abbey Rock and the mill attached to the monastery is thought to have stood on the bank of the south channel of the River Lee, which runs through the College lower grounds. This association is also reflected in the College motto "Where Finbarr Taught, Let Munster Learn" which is also the university motto.
On this site (on a hill overlooking the valley of the Lee), the Tudor Gothic quadrangle and early campus buildings were built by Deane and Woodward. Over the coming years the College gained a standing for excellence in various fields, including mathematics, medicine and the humanities.
In the following century, the Irish Universities Act (1908) formed the National University of Ireland, consisting of the three constituent colleges of Dublin, Cork and Galway, and the college was given the status of a university college as University College, Cork. The Universities Act, 1997, made the university college a constituent university of the National University and made the constituent university a full university for all purposes except the awarding of degrees and diplomas which remains the sole remit of the National University.