The Athlone Institute of Technology can expect a third official title in its 40-year history - expected to be Technological University Athlone - if talks this week to amalgamate the five institutes in the Border, Midlands and West (BMW ) region come to fruition.
A steering group comprising the presidents and senior staff of Athlone Institute of Technology, Dundalk Institute of Technology, Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, Letterkenny Institute of Technology, and Institute of Technology, Sligo, is directing the negotiations, described by a spokesperson as being “at an advanced stage”.
Following a model of amalgamation that has proved highly successful for the NUI and the DIT, the Higher Education Authority will shortly publish the criteria for the establishment of technological universities (TUs ) in the wake of the Hunt Report on this issue.
Approval by Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn is expected “this spring”, according to a Department spokesperson, and any of the 14 institutes in the State will be free to apply for TU status. The spokesperson was unable to give any accurate estimation of when this might come about.
Given Government approval, a Border Midlands West Technological University (BMW TU ) would create the largest higher education institution in the State with 27,000 students. However, it must be stressed this potential amalgamation will not lead to a centralised campus. Even the much more compact DIT couldn’t achieve this, as mooted for the enormous Grangegorman site in the north inner city during the Tiger years.
A first TU - between Carlow and Waterford ITs - is seen as “almost certain” amongst education sources, with the BMWTU to follow. A third application from the three remaining, non-amalgamated colleges around Dublin - IADT Dún Laoghaire, IT Blanchardstown, and IT Tallaght - is also anticipated.
“We are looking to create a differentiated institution, one that will be known for the excellence of its teaching and learning, and for its close collaboration with industry. Such a technological university will be much more than the sum of its parts, it will be a powerful agent of change in higher education for all the communities and stakeholders involved,” said AIT president, Prof Ciarán Ó Catháin.
The AIT has been to the forefront in these matters, having been involved in informal discussions with NUI Galway and St Angela’s College in Sligo since 1999, and having started this particular ball rolling last year with GMIT, before the other four jumped on the bandwagon.
One example of an advantage with such an amalgamation was a statistic revealed by Ned Costello, CEO of the Irish Universities Association recently, where he pointed out the average number of PhD students in an institute was 30, whereas it was over 1,000 in universities.
