Ó An Roinn Breisoideachais agus Ardoideachais, Taighde, Nuálaíochta agus Eolaíochta
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Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD has today (5 May 2021) granted Technological University (TU) status to Athlone Institute of Technology and Limerick Institute of Technology.
This is the third TU to be created since 2019 and is a milestone for the Midlands and the Mid-West.
Minister Harris said:
"This is another hugely important day for higher education in Ireland and in particular for the Midlands and Mid-West regions.
"The higher education landscape is rapidly evolving and the people of the Midlands and Mid-West will be at the heart both geographically and practically of that evolution.
"This new technological university designate will increase higher education access, drive enhanced regional development and increase opportunities for students, staff, business and enterprise, and local communities.
"This new TU – our third since 2019 - will now take its rightful place in the higher education landscape in the country’s heartlands. The new higher education institution of increased scale and reach will benefit the students and communities of Westmeath, Limerick, Tipperary, Clare and Offaly to name but some of the counties which will be served by the new university."
The process to designate a new TU is enshrined in the Technological Universities Act 2018. The next steps in the legislative process require the Minister to bring forward a draft order establishing the appointed day on which the new technological university will be legally established and Athlone and Limerick ITs consequentially dissolved for approval by the Houses of the Oireachtas. Students graduating in the 2021-2022 academic year will do so with university qualifications.
Minister Harris added:
"I would like to warmly congratulate and sincerely thank the very many people from the two Institutions including their management, governing bodies, staff, students and the wider regional and community stakeholders who have enabled today’s announcement and who can now look forward to an exciting future for this new university and the regions it will serve."
Minister of State for Further Education and Skills Niall Collins TD added:
"This is a transformational event for the people of the Midlands and the Mid-West. We know the many faceted benefits of TUs and we are seeing how they can transform regions elsewhere. I am very much looking forward to this new TU bringing those benefits from Clare and Limerick, through Tipperary and up the Shannon across the Midlands to Athlone and beyond.
"This will allow people across the Midlands and Mid-West and beyond through digital connectivity to obtain a university degree in their home places. As a former LIT lecturer and a proud Limerick man I am delighted to see this milestone being reached and I want to congratulate all involved."
The development and progression of technological universities is an established policy objective of Government in the context of higher education landscape restructuring. It has its genesis in recommendations contained in the National Strategy for Higher Education to 2030 published in 2011.
Since the publication of the National Strategy a number of consortia of Institutes of Technology (IoTs) have with Exchequer co-funding support been progressing proposals to become TUs. The process to do so is prescribed in the Technological Universities Act 2018 which then Minister of State for Higher Education Mitchell O’Connor brought to enactment March 2018.
Under the statutory framework provided in the 2018 Act, two or more IoTs may jointly seek TU designation through a prescribed legislative process. Section 29 of the 2018 Act provides for the application jointly by two or more applicant institutes to the Minister of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science for an order seeking designation as a TU subject to their jointly meeting specified eligibility criteria. Section 38 of the 2018 Act provides that an applicant institute and an established technological university may apply to the Minister for an order.
In October 2019 the TU Research Network (TURN) high level advisory group, comprising the president of TU Dublin and all presidents of HEIs then seeking TU status and chaired by an independent UK higher education transformation expert Professor Phil Gummett, produced their seminal report ‘Technological Universities: Connectedness & Collaboration enabled by Connectivity’.
The report details the case for and requirements necessary for a state change in higher education reform in Ireland whereby TUs will assist in the delivery of national strategic objectives for regional socio-economic development, higher education access, research and skills progression. The TURN report is available at https://www.education.ie/en/Publications/Education-Reports/connectedness-collaboration-through-connectivity.pdf
On foot of the TURN report Government announced in Budget 2020 the provision of €90 million over the next three years under a TU Transformation Fund to support IoTs to jointly achieve TU designation and to further the advancement of established TUs. This dedicated funding is additional to the €31 million in Exchequer funding invested in TU development and progression since 2013. In October 2020 Minister Harris announced the first tranche of the Transformation Fund of €33.44 million allocated to relevant HEIs.
The first TU in the history of the state, TU Dublin, was established on 1 January 2019 followed by the second, Munster Technological University or MTU (formerly Cork IT and IT Tralee) on 1 January 2021.
The latest application for TU designation was submitted by the TUSEI consortium of Waterford IT and IT Carlow to the Minister on 30 April and an application from the Connacht Ulster Alliance of GMIT, IT Sligo and Letterkenny IT is anticipated soon. Both Dundalk IT and IADT Dun Laoghaire are working on trajectories to achieve TU status with the continued assistance of the Transformation Fund with technical advice and support provided by the Higher Education Authority.