Professor Ciaran O'Boyle, Director of the Institute of Leadership, today delivered the closing keynote address to the 10th Annual Human Resources Conference of the Irish Universities Association held at University College Cork.

The theme of the conference was 'Surviving and Thriving Through the Recession'.

Professor O'Boyle's lecture, entitled 'Coping With Pressure and Fostering Resilience in Challenging Times', explored personal and organisational strategies for dealing with stress in the higher education sector and examined the importance of distributed leadership in addressing the challenges of working in a modern university.

The conference was addressed by a range of national and international experts and explored the challenges for the higher education sector in maximising employee wellbeing and engagement in the context of rapid change and diminishing resources.