Atlantic Technological University (ATU ) will commence its operations as a new legal entity on April 1, 2022. To mark the historic occasion, GMIT, IT Sligo, and LYIT will host a week-long series of public events during the first week of April, details of which will be launched later this spring.
With eight campuses stretching from north Donegal to south Galway, many of the ATU locations will become university towns for the first time and it is hoped local communities will join staff and students in celebrating the successful conclusion of the merger and birth of the ATU
The new multi-campus technological university will offer almost 600 academic programmes from pre-degree to doctoral level to a student population of some 20,000 students, supported by more than 2,200 staff. Working with stakeholders in the region, cross border and beyond, the new TU will support the needs of enterprises, especially SMEs across the region, though employee education and research, to enhance economic, social, and cultural prosperity. It will also deepen collaborative partnerships with national, cross-border, and international further and higher education institutions as well as organisations in the public and private sectors.
Announcing designation approval last October, Minister Simon Harris said: “The new TU – our fourth since 2019 and second this year - will now take its rightful place in the higher education landscape in a very important strategic part of the country, bordering as it will both the Atlantic and Northern Ireland. This new technological university will increase higher education access, drive enhanced regional development, and increase opportunities for students, staff, business and enterprise, and local communities.”
The presidents of the three students' unions, Colin Kearney (GMIT ), Adam O’Flaherty (LYIT ), and Dáire Martin (IT Sligo ), said in a statement: “We believe that the merger will encourage inward investment in the region, so that high quality employment will be available for current and future graduates. The opportunities for international engagement in study, work, and research with university partners across the globe will increase. For new and upcoming students gaining a university qualification in the regions across a variety of levels from apprenticeship to doctorate qualifications, with flexible modes of learning, will be possible.”
For further information on the Connacht-Ulster Alliance, the partnership of the three institutes of technology behind the new university, see www.cualliance.ie
