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THREE INSTITUTES of Technology have given education minister Ruairí Quinn a new headache – by announcing their intention to come together and merge into a new technological university.
The ITs in Cork, Tralee and Limerick say they wish to establish a Munster Technological University (MTU), which would have an enrolment of around 24,000 people across its five campuses.
In a statement published this morning, the three institutes said they had been working together to establish MTU since the publication of the Hunt Report on higher education last year.
That report had recommended against the designation of any new universities in their current format, but said there was room to create ‘technological universities’ if the definition of a university was expanded.
The announcement of the MTU project creates difficulties for the government, as it means that every single one of the country’s 13 Institutes of Technology is seeking to become part of a new university, for which there is no legal basis as yet.
Three institutes in Dublin – DIT, Blanchardstown IT and IT Tallaght – are hoping to join with IADT Dún Laoghaire and form a Dublin-based technological university, while the ITs in Waterford and Carlow have been seeking university status for a merged institution for the south-east for decades.
Last week five ITs in the ‘Border, Midlands and West’ (BMW) region – Athlone, Dundalk, Galway-Mayo, Letterkenny and Sligo – announced their intention to seek designation as a BMW technological university.
The heads of Ireland’s seven existing universities – Trinity College, University College Dublin, Dublin City University, NUI Galway, NUI Maynooth, University of Limerick and University College Cork – last week said they opposed the creation of new universities.
They argued that the creation of extra universities – when the existing ones are seeing their State funding begin to dry up – would place the higher education sector under even greater pressures.
They also believe the creation of 11 universities – with only a handful of non-university colleges remaining – could undermine or devalue the status of a university.
All of this assumes that if you call something a university it somehow becomes one. What nonsense. We do not need more than the 7 universities we already have, and a place like Cork (great and all that it is), does not need 2 universities. The second university will just remain as a second tier establishment making the exercise both costly and pointless. This type of action does not fool anybody with any idea of education, such as potential investors and employers. All it does is aggrandise institutes of technological education which should remain as such. If anything, all that this would achieve is to diminish the quality of international perception of Irish university education further, which cannot possible be in the national interest.
Yes much like when all the RTC’s were upgraded to IT’s
It didn’t make any difference to the quality of teaching
Ireland doesn’t need more universities. It needs better quality and better quality assurance.
I wonder if this went ahead would there be less people in top management.
We already have too many Universities. We should invest in the Universities we have, and ensure they lead their respective fields. UL already doesn’t deserve the title of a University, it has absolutely no international reputation. Trinity fell out of the top 100 universities in the world for the first time this year, whereas a few years ago it was in the top 50. Its time to better fund those with a chance of properly representing our country in the education scene, rather than spreading too little butter over too much bread
Just an Fyi…Trinity is still in top 100. Currently no.65 in QS world university rankings this year, down from 52 in 2010.
http://www.topuniversities.com/university-rankings/world-university-rankings/2011?page=1
Still agree with your comment though, quality needs to be the focus rather than increasing quantity in an already financially stretched sector.
Kate, thanks for that. I’m not an expert in these things but I think the problem here is that QS used to do the rankings for THE, which were considered the authoritative ones.
Since THE and QS parted ways they’ve started doing separate charts and the jury is still out as to which is the more authoritative. Neither Trinity (nor UCD, which was in it two years ago) are in the THE top 100 any more.
Thanks Gavin. Yes your 100% right, I was taking the QS to be the authoritative ranking, but fair to say the THE is still a huge player and one could argue either way as to which publication is more prominent.
What is conclusive from both rankings is that Irish top university rankings have fallen, a worrying trend no matter what the absolute ranking number is.
If they want to be “universities”, why doesn’t CIT amalgamate with UCC; LIT with UL; and leave TIT where it’s at?
Crap when we can’t teach post GRAD,
I’d prefer WIT to stay the same and let us teach post grad than just get a name change
One for every one in the audience !!!
have your say