Quick Facts
Biography
Caroline Elinor Hussey (3 December 1941 – 11 May 2017) was an Irish microbiologist and academic. She served as President of the Irish Federation of University Teachers (IFUT) from 1989 to 1992. She was appointed the first female Registrar and Deputy President of University College Dublin (UCD), Ireland's largest university, in 1994, and remained in that post until her retirement in 2004. She was Chairperson of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment from 1995 to 2000.
Birth and education
Caroline Hussey was born on 3 December 1941 to Frank and Aileen Hussey. Frank Hussey was lecturer and housemaster at Albert College, the UCD agricultural school in Glasnevin (now DCU), and the family lived on campus for a time. She completed her primary and secondary education at the St. Mary's Holy Faith Convent in Glasnevin.
Graduating from UCD in 1962 with a degree in Biochemistry, Hussey went on to complete a PhD at Trinity College Dublin in 1966. She continued her research at TCD and was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University. In 1973 she returned to UCD, where she was appointed as lecturer in industrial microbiology.
Academic career
During her time as lecturer in industrial microbiology, Hussey served as a member of the Governing Body of UCD and was also a member of the Senate of the National University of Ireland.
She had a particular interest in the area of health and safety. This interest led to the initiation of a Diploma in Health and Safety, a multidisciplinary programme that was taught in a number of Irish Universities. Ultimately, this contributed to the passage of the first Health, Safety and Welfare at Work Act in Ireland, in 1989.
Using the pseudonym H. J. Forrest, Caroline Hussey published two crime novels, set in south Dublin and on the UCD campus, Publish or Perish (1991) and Murder by the Book (1992).
Senior academic administration
In 1994, Hussey was appointed Registrar and Deputy President of UCD, a position she held until her retirement in 2004. She was known for her rigorous defence of academic standards and addressing quality of teaching at UCD. In 1996, she became chair woman of the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment making her, according to a profile in the Irish Times, "arguably the second most influential woman in Irish education". Niamh Bhreathnach was the Minister for Education at the time, and Caroline Hussey strongly supported her decision to abolish third level fees.
Later life and death
In 2011, Hussey was appointed by the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn as part of an advisory group to convene the forum on Patronage and Pluralism in the Irish primary education sector. The group published their report the following year.
She died in Dublin on 11 May 2017 after a short illness.