After a slew of setbacks due to concerns over debts, Cork Institute of Technology (CIT) and IT Tralee are to merge to form the Munster Technological University.
Last July, the merger was postponed until 2020, amid CIT’s concerns over the debts of IT Tralee and a “lack of clear vision” for what the new university will look like.
The decision to grant the technological university status to the two colleges was announced today by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, Minister for Education Joe McHugh and Minister of State for Higher Education Mary Mitchell O’Connor.
In a press statement, Varadkar said: “This is an important day for higher education in Ireland and for the South West. The Government has a very clear ambition to expand and consolidate higher education facilities, to boost economic development across the country and to attract research funding. Technological Universities are central to delivering on this.”
“The establishment of the Munster Technological University will stimulate a more balanced growth of population and employment across Ireland”, he continued. “It will make it easier to secure foreign direct investment and provide quality jobs in the region. This new TU in Munster will be a driver of regional development, and it will help to make higher education more accessible.”
“Above all else”, Varadkar said, “it will provide more opportunities for individuals, enterprise and the community. I want to thank both Institutes, their staff, students and management. I congratulate in particular Minister Mary Mitchell O’Connor who has been driving this change”.
Mitchell O’Connor added: “The higher education landscape is changing and the people who will benefit most are the students of the South West. The technological university model provides the template to drive regional development, enhance opportunities for students, staff and business, enterprise and community stakeholders, and creates a step change in the impact and influence of these institutions regionally, nationally and internationally.”
“Munster TU will now take its place in our higher education system”, she added. “It is essential that a new university is agile, forward thinking and builds on the combined strengths of its staff and students across all disciplines and all levels, promoting enhanced teaching, learning and qualifications opportunities for students, from apprenticeship level right up to post-doctoral level.”
“This type of far-seeing initiative is doubly important to us, individually and collectively, as we begin to work through the Covid-19 and emerging post-Covid-19 realities.”
“I would like to warmly congratulate the many people from the two institutions who have brought us to today’s announcement and look forward to a strong future for this exciting new university”, Mitchell O’Connor said.
Students graduating from the two colleges in the 2020/2021 academic year will do so with university qualifications.
The amalgamation of Cork IT and IT Tralee to form Munster Technical University was first proposed in February 2019, but hit multiple roadblocks with Cork IT unwilling to take on IT Tralee’s substantial debts, leaving the viability of the project under question.
Institutes of technology have been central to the government’s plans for the future of a higher education sector in the midst of a funding crisis. Last year, McHugh came under fire after suggesting that students who could not afford to go to university could instead go to regional colleges.
In the past few years, institutes of technology have taken steps to amalgamate to create technical universities. Last year, Dublin Institute of Technology, Institute of Technology Tallaght, and Institute of Technology Blanchardstown joined together to form Technical University Dublin.
