University of Dublin - Organisation

Organisation

The University of Dublin was modelled on University of Oxford and University of Cambridge in the form of a collegiate university, Trinity College being named by the Queen as the mater universitas ("mother of the university"). As no other college was ever established, Trinity is the sole constituent college of the university and so Trinity College and the University of Dublin are for most practical purposes synonymous.

Queen Victoria issued letters patent in 1857 giving legal foundation to the senate, and other authorities specific to the university – but the high court held in 1888 that these dealt with "not the incorporation of the University of Dublin but of its Senate merely", the judge noting pointedly, referring to the founding of University College Dublin, that "The advisers of Queen Victoria knew how to incorporate a University when they meant to do so." In a remarkable High Court case of 1898, the Provost, Fellows and Scholars of Trinity were the claimants and the Chancellor, Doctors and Masters of the University of Dublin were among the defendants, and the court held that Trinity College and the University of Dublin "are one body".

However, the actual statutes of the university and the college grant the university separate corporate legal rights to own property and borrow money and employ staff.