Since his appointment almost three years ago, Dr Hugh Brady has been rarely out of the headlines. He has set very tough goals both for himself and for UCD. He seems determined to achieve them - even if there is some collateral damage along the way.

Some of this collateral damage surfaced during the summer when Brady was accused of poaching top-class academics from other universities. Both the Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, and the Minister for Education, Mary Hanafin, signalled their unease with the practice. Ireland, they said, was too small to sustain this kind of poaching.

The other university presidents also conveyed their displeasure. In a robust piece in this newspaper, one university president was openly critical of UCD.

The dispute has now been patched up. Earlier this month, the seven university presidents agreed a new protocol governing recruitment of staff. In keeping with an agreement among them, Dr Brady would not discuss the protocol in this interview.

Brady has also faced severe internal criticism, not surprising given the pace of change in UCD.

Since his appointment, Brady has wrestled impatiently with a university commonly seen as underachieving during the 1990s. Faculties and individual departments have been, to use the American term, "downsized", bureaucracy has been scaled back and some 22 internal committees have been abolished.

He has been accused of sapping the morale of academics, destroying the collegiate culture of UCD and running a "pro-business" agenda. Despite this, his ambitious change agenda was endorsed by UCD's governing body with virtually no dissent.

Brady's goal is a leaner, fitter UCD which can compete on a global level. There is much to be done. UCD ranks outside the top 200 universities in the world.

Brady is a former professor of medicine at Harvard. By common consent, he holds one of the most glittering CVs in Irish academic life. In 1996, the year he came back from Boston, the Government's research budget stood at zero; today it is over €2billion. This has changed the context in which UCD operates.

Brady comes across as an immensely focused individual, not given to smalltalk or gossip. He also seems remarkably unfazed by the criticism he has faced in the past two years. "I suppose when your first job is being up all night for a 36-hour stretch as junior doctor you get a certain perspective," he says.

He seems to be enjoying the UCD job hugely, saying he has no intention of going anywhere else until he has completed the full 10-year term that will take him to 2014. He says, repeatedly, "this is a great job" with a "different challenge" every day.

It may be that the most difficult phase of what "The Brady Project" is already over. Most of the structural changes have been made. The challenge now is to implement change in a way that will make a real difference. Having survived the last two traumatic years, Brady appears to be sitting comfortably. Student applications to UCD are up by 10 per cent.

And, while the poaching row may have unsettled relations with Government Ministers and some other colleges, it has also conveyed a positive image of UCD as a place where the bar is being constantly raised.