CareerProf Cathal O'Connell is a staff member of the School of Applied Social Studies. Prior to joining UCC he was employed in the housing, finance, and city management departments in the Irish local authority sector for a number of years. He was appointed Head of School in April 2018 for a three year term. In September 2022 he was appointed Vice Head for Teaching and Learning in the College of Arts Celtic Studies and Social Science, University College Cork. He was Interim Head of College of Arts Celtic Studies and Social Sciences in succession to the late Professor Chris Williams (RIP) from April 2024 to August 2025. Throughout his career at UCC, Cathal O'Connell has served on a wide range of school, faculty, college and university committees and is a former Assistant Dean for Student Affairs in the Faculty of Arts. He is a member of the Academic Standards Board of (ACE) Centre for Adult Education UCC agus tá sé ina mbáll de Bord na Gaeilge, Colaiste na h-Ollscoile Chorcaigh. In December 2020 he was appointed Independent Chair of the Traveller Interagency Services Group (TIG) which oversees the delivery of services to the Traveller Community by statutory and state funded bodies. . In September 2022 he joined the Board of Directors of Respond an Approved Housing Body which manages 8,000 social housing units across Ireland. In January 2024 he was appointed Independent Chair of the Working Group on Funding of Homeless services under Section 10 of the Housing Act 1988. Research Activity He is an active researcher in the areas of social housing, regeneration and social inclusion and has published extensively in these areas. He has been the recipient of multiple competitive national funding awards under PTRLI4, IRCHSS, IRC and numerous public and private tenders. Professor O'Connell is the recipient of numerous IRCHSS and

Social housing management and provision, housing estate regeneration, healthy ageing in place

Teaching and Learning Approach I believe that teaching is a core responsibility of the university of equal standing to other academic responsibilities. I undertake all assigned teaching duties and do not "outsource" my teaching or examining or engage in teaching buyout. I am a trained university teacher having successfully completed the Certificate in Teaching and Learning in 2005. As part of my ongoing professional development as a teacher I keep abreast of innovations and developments in teaching practice and techniques and adopt an evidence based approach to enhance my teaching performance. I have a extensive experience identifying opportunities to establish new programmes, academic and professional, and have been inviolved in the set up of virtually all programmes in the School of Applied Social Studies over the past 20 years. These include the MSW (Social Work), BSW (Social Work) for which I have acted as Recent programmes which I have been centrall involved in establishing in UCC include the M.Plan in Planning and Sustatinable Development (established 2006), PhD (Social Science GREP) (established 2008) and the M.Soc.Sc (Youth Work, Sports Studies and Community Arts) which will enrol students from September 2013. I have chaired and served on multiple Programme Approval Panels as part of the programme approval process in University College Cork and I was appointed Vice Head of College for Teaching and Learning for a three year term on 1st September 2022. Teaching and Examining Responsibilities In keeping with established practice within the Schoolof Applied Social Studies, I teach on a wide range of programmes, from first year undergraduate to PhD level, within and outside the School of Applied Social Studies. These programmes include: B.Soc.Sc Years 1-3 (Course Director and Year Co-ordinator B.Soc.Sc Year 3) BSW Year 1 B.Sc (Government) Year 4 M.Soc.Sc (Socia