Ensure DSpace defaults to UTC time zone in all code / tests. This is necessary so that Spring / Hibernate don't auto-switch timezones when reading from database.

dspace-api/src/test/java/org/dspace/AbstractDSpaceTest.java

@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.sql.SQLException;
+import java.time.ZoneOffset;
 import java.util.Properties;
 import java.util.TimeZone;
 
@@ -82,8 +83,10 @@ public class AbstractDSpaceTest {
     @BeforeClass
     public static void initKernel() {
         try {
-            //set a standard time zone for the tests
-            TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone("Europe/Dublin"));
+            // All tests should assume UTC timezone by default (unless overridden in the test itself)
+            // This ensures that Spring doesn't attempt to change the timezone of dates that are read from the
+            // database (via Hibernate). We store all dates in the database as UTC.
+            TimeZone.setDefault(TimeZone.getTimeZone(ZoneOffset.UTC));
 
             //load the properties of the tests
             testProps = new Properties();