From small beginnings, UCD has rapidly outpaced the other universities in the State in terms of size. In 1854, 20 students enrolled for the first term of the Catholic University of Ireland. In 1909, the year after the college became known as UCD, more than 55 per cent of its 458 undergraduates were reading medicine.

Medicine remained the largest faculty until the academic year 1922-23. By 1944, UCD was the largest university in the State, with more than 3,000 students. Today, it remains the largest university, with almost 20,000 students.

Arts, philosophy, sociology, and Celtic studies account for the largest proportion of students, at 35 per cent. Next comes medicine, at 15.5 per cent; commerce, 13.5 per cent; science 12 per cent; engineering and architecture, 9 per cent; agriculture, 6 per cent, followed by inter-faculty students, law and veterinary medicine.

With a strong academic reputation, well regarded by employers, and having among the best sports and social facilities in the State, the college is extremely popular with college applicants. President Art Cosgrove, who will shake hands with 4,000 graduates this autumn, notes that there were 2.5 applicants for every first-year place this year. He says the declining population of school-leaves will not hit UCD for some time to come.

The strongest critics of a college are often the members of the students' union, who are called upon to deal with student problems at first hand.

Aonghus Hourihane, president of the student union, says of UCD: "It's a mini-town, outside the city, with its own shops, bank, bars, students centre, sports facilities, playing pitches, people living here or close by.

"The interaction between city and country students is brilliant. There's always craic. We have all classes, religions, nationalities, colours and races here in one big town, in a city, going to college together. I think that's a superb thing about UCD."

What about the oft-cited lost and lonely student, usually from the country, wandering in a vast concrete campus? "Okay, if you walk into theatre L, first sociology, and there's 600 people there, you won't know the person you're sitting next to. But that's where the union, the clubs and societies come in." If the amount of sign pollution on the pillars on the walkway between the Belfield restaurant and student centre are any indication, students have plenty of choice.

Pressed for problems, Hourihane eventually comes up with the difficulty and expense involved in securing accommodation. Architecture students in Richview have no restaurant and have to walk half a mile to enjoy the benefits of the campus. And there are complaints from science students about the age of the computers, he says.

A complaint recently voiced in The Irish Times letters page concerned the litter strewn on campus. When EL visited, the only items dropped on the pavements appeared to be the leaves from the trees, and the occasional cigarette butt, though the leavings of late-night revels on Friday may leave the campus a little stressed by morning.

UCD's Belfield campus extends to 320 acres, with a splendid running track, pitches, gymnasium and student centre. When Cosgrove was appointed president eight years ago, he moved outlying departments such as veterinary medicine, medicine, civil and agricultural engineering on to the Belfield campus.

The view from his spacious office, across the artificial lake, now includes a brand new veterinary building, almost ready to open its door. "Engineering facilities in Earlsfort Terrace are not as good as they should be, but we need a decision from Government in respect of their removal to Belfield, so we know if we should spend a lot of money on refurbishment. The building could revert to the Government and the cost of the move could be offset against the value of the building." Another plank of his policy was to achieve a greater balance on staff to reflect the proportions in the undergraduate body. Today, UCD's undergraduate body is 52 per cent female, although women continue to be very much under-represented in some faculties such as engineering and agriculture.

Women account for almost one third of full-time academic staff but, at the most senior level, fewer than 10 per cent of professors are female. Cosgrove says the college has an equality committee and that targets rather than quotas may be the answer.

A survey carried out by the registrar, Caroline Hussey, last year found that students' major concern was access to the campus. Public transport is not very friendly to UCD and it can take up to two hours to reach Belfield from the northside if you have to change bus, says Cosgrove.

When you do reach the campus, a striking amount of building is under way. As well as the veterinary school, there is a new undergraduate school of commerce, due to open in autumn next year. A big hole in the ground, close to the existing biotechnology centre and the new veterinary building, is due to become the PRTLI-funded Conway Institute of Molecular Medicine and Biomedical Research.

Other new developments, listed by Cosgrove, include the Institute for the Study of Social Change, and the Dublin Molecular Medicine Centre (a joint venture with TCD), also PRTLI funded. The Higher Education Authority recently indicated that UCD would be the venue for a new centre for American studies, while the college has received funding for the first chair of disability studies in the State.

Cosgrove looks pleased that he ignored the advice given by his father, a Newry publican, on his graduation: "'Good, now you can go and do something useful and go and run the pub.' In the event, I opted for the academic life and have never regretted it."