Mainstreaming Active Teaching and the Craft of History (MATCH) aimed to introduce small group teaching as a core module in First Year History, as part of a wider curriculum reform. Its focus on active learning responded to the Irish Survey of Student Engagement Summary Report, and employed inclusive-UDL principles for History students. History has a large and growing number of First Year students registered with DSS, so incorporating these principles was essential. It was also responding to developments such as the rise of tools like ChatGPT that can compromise academic integrity. MATCH aimed to transform First Year History by putting the historian’s craft at the heart of the curriculum and enabling students to see themselves as authentic researchers, ‘doing’ history from their very first semester at university. Its objectives included:

• Putting student research and collaboration at the core of our curriculum from First Year onwards.

• Fostering academic integrity in first-year students.

• Prioritising accessibility and inclusion, so that no-one gets left behind.

• Implementing a mentoring system.

Put together, these changes were aimed at producing confident, skilled students competent in the essential tasks of the historian and at inculcating a richer first year experience, where students have a much stronger group identity, with increased engagement with both staff and their peers.