Business students entering UCD from next September will be required to buy laptop computers in order to participate in its programmes.

The laptops will be used in UCD's new high-tech Quinn Business School which UCD said would be the most modern business school in the State. It has been named after businessman, Mr Lochlann Quinn, who donated £4 million (€5.1 million) to the venture.

The total cost of the school will be £19 million and Prof Philip Bourke, dean of UCD's commerce department, said the investment would allow the faculty to move out of its current offices in the commerce/arts block and offer new forms of teaching.

He said the use of laptops and associated technology would change the face of business education forever and that a collaborative approach represented the future.

Dell, he said, would provide the laptops at low cost and Bank of Ireland would allocate low interest finance to students to buy them.

UCD's commerce department has produced a long list of leading business people, but Prof Bourke said the old ways of teaching where lecturers addressed students in a large lecture hall and imparted knowledge while students took notes, was gone.

The new school had been set up to allow students use their laptops no matter where they were in the building. Transponders would be situated throughout the building so students could log on anywhere. He said the curriculum would be changed to reflect the increasing emphasis on technology. The laptop project is going ahead after a pilot phase in UCD's Smurfit School of Business