In 2006, €27,000 was awarded to Caroline Graham, Director, University of Limerick Language Centre, and Dr. Angela Chambers, Professor of Applied Languages, to develop a number of Writing Centre activities and an academic business plan for the creation of a Writing Centre in UL. Subsequent to that initial award, Sarah Moore, Dean of UL's Centre for Teaching and Learning, assisted with the expansion of the UL application to take advantage of the newly announced HEA, Strategic Innovation Fund (SIF)context. Subsequently, UL was successfully awarded a 2.5 year, €250,000 budget to fund the creation of the Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre. An inter-institutional initiative based in UL, serving as a nexus of writing activities at the four institutions, the Shannon Consortium Regional Writing Centre won its award on the strength of its recognition of the centrality of writing to teaching and learning in higher education and the importance of writing for not only the dissemination, but also the discovery and creation of knowledge. Seeing the great value of the Writing Centre to the furtherance of many of the university's strategic goals and envisaging the centre's eventual value to the wider off-campus community, the university's administration mainstreamed the Writing Centre at the end of its SIF contract in 2009, placing it under the auspices of the Centre for Teaching and Learning and assuming responsibility for its financial support.
Today the re-titled Regional Writing Centre, UL, continues in its support of undergraduate and postgraduate student writers and collaboration with faculty to develop their own writing and to expand writing-based curriculum innovations. While writing centres have flourished in American universities since the late 1960s, the Regional Writing Centre is the first of its kind in Ireland. The value of the Centre is its contribution to the academic success and future professional development of students and staff at UL and its aspirations for writing development for the region.
Regional Writing Centre administrative structure:
Project Manager and Writing Centre Director: Prof. Sarah Moore, Associate Vice President, Academic, and Dean of the Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Limerick
Project Coordinator and Line Manager of employees of the Writing Centre: Maura Murphy, Manager, Centre for Teaching and Learning, University of Limerick
Writing Consultants charged with research, curricular design and the day to day advancement of Regional Writing Centre goals:
Regional Writing Centre Advisory Board:
