South East University

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Wednesday, January 26, 2005 :



Carlow and Waterford battle for university

CARLOW TD MJ Nolan is making a firm stand against fellow Fianna Fáil colleague Transport Minister Martin Cullen, concerning the location of Ireland's next university.

The debate was sparked by a public statement by Dr Edward Walsh, founding president of the University of Limerick, calling for a university in the Southeast, adding that the region has a relatively low percentage of students who go on to third level.


“Waterford Institute of Technology is the finest entity of its type in the country. Given the quality and variety of courses it offers, the students it attracts, the staff it employs and the research it conducts, it is a university in all but name,” said Minister Cullen.


“I reject that,” Deputy Nolan told The Nationalist this week. “IT Carlow is a first-class facility and is at least the equal of Waterford Institute of Technology.


“Waterford are being greedy; they are trying to take everything for themselves.


“If you want to be parochial about things, Munster already has two university cities: Cork and Limerick. Leinster has only Dublin. Why should we support Waterford in this bid? The only satisfactory out-come would be a Southeast university with a twin campus structure. One based in Waterford and one here in Carlow.”


The Waterford constituency has been a massive beneficiary of the Cullen ministerial portfolios. Since he graduated to the Office of Public Works in 1997 (and subsequently the ministries of environment and transport) local road projects, Waterford Airport, and the city centre government buildings have all received substantial central funding.


Now the minister, a former student of WIT - then the Waterford Regional Technical College - has his sights firmly on a Waterford university, stating that his home place is: “the only gateway city that doesn't have a university.” This will no doubt come as a surprise to people of Sligo, Letterkenny, Dundalk and Athlone/Mullingar, who are not aware that they lived in university gateway cities.


In a statement to The Nationalist, Dr Ruaidhri Neavyn, Director of IT Carlow welcomed the prospect of a university in the Southeast but echoed the reservations of Deputy Nolan concerning Waterford's claims to being the sole site of that facilty.


“The Institute (of Carlow) does not agree that the way to build on the existing network of third-level educational establishments at Carlow, Wexford, Kilkenny, Clonmel and Waterford is through the development of a University of the Southeast in Waterford City,” he said.


“The Institute believes that full consideration and meaningful discussion with all the third-level providers must occur before any decision can be made on a possible location or locations.”

ToxicPaddy

Hmmm.. This debate has been going on for ages.

The fact remains that the people who matter just dont want anymore Universities setup in Ireland, so fighting among each other is not gonna help this.

Personally I think that combining A few colleges together is the way to go, maybe with each specialising in a different area. Ok out of all the colleges in the South East, WIT is the biggest and with its building a facilities it could probably offer more, but I think combining all colleges is the best way to go.

Carlow has a good reputation as a college with it growing each year, it has or had facilities in Kilkenny and Wexford. Tipp Inst is also growing and the Clonmel campus moving to a new building outside the town. Might be the better way to go.

If they start bickering amoungst themselves then it suits all those who dont want another University and will love the fact that the limelight has been taken off them.

Tox

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ToxicPaddy wrote:

Hmmm.. This debate has been going on for ages.

The fact remains that the people who matter just dont want anymore Universities setup in Ireland, so fighting among each other is not gonna help this.

Personally I think that combining A few colleges together is the way to go, maybe with each specialising in a different area. Ok out of all the colleges in the South East, WIT is the biggest and with its building a facilities it could probably offer more, but I think combining all colleges is the best way to go.

Carlow has a good reputation as a college with it growing each year, it has or had facilities in Kilkenny and Wexford. Tipp Inst is also growing and the Clonmel campus moving to a new building outside the town. Might be the better way to go.

If they start bickering amoungst themselves then it suits all those who dont want another University and will love the fact that the limelight has been taken off them.

Tox

Yea, well said they should team up and go for a dual campus approach like Ulster.
Could be a problem though as Carlow is near to Maynooth and Dublin.
But it seems very unfair that a region with a population of south east doesn't have a uni, while Dublin region has four plus several ITs!WIT could be the main campus with Carlow supporting; it's not rocket science; now if only they'd go and do this and tell people like MJ Nolan to go lobby the Dept of Education instead of attacking WIT..

jd

It should be Waterford TBH. It is the only urban area in the South East that has the capacity to develop into a proper city of 150k or so. The government's spatial strategy (though even that spreads things too thinly) is ignored -cf the ridiculous decentralisation programme.

spanner

mfitzy wrote:

Yea, well said they should team up and go for a dual campus approach like Ulster.
Could be a problem though as Carlow is near to Maynooth and Dublin.
But it seems very unfair that a region with a population of south east doesn't have a uni, while Dublin region has four plus several ITs!WIT could be the main campus with Carlow supporting; it's not rocket science; now if only they'd go and do this and tell people like MJ Nolan to go lobby the Dept of Education instead of attacking WIT..

this is quite a good idea but with the two in competion I would wonder if they would pull together, I guess the cork road campus will really have to be the head of any uni in the south east. I have been to the two colleges and I did prefer carlow because it is a more homely easy going atmosphere, you definately make more friends and you dont feel like you are one in a million like WIT.

kano476

makes more sense to put it in waterford buti would agree about the dual campus - have the two colleges to come under the south east university as is the way with GMIT and ulster or whatever. and yeah carlow is within commuting distance of maynooth and dublin. waterford isnt.

Bards

mfitzy wrote:

Wednesday, January 26, 2005 :

Now the minister, a former student of WIT - then the Waterford Regional Technical College - has his sights firmly on a Waterford university, stating that his home place is: “the only gateway city that doesn't have a university.” This will no doubt come as a surprise to people of Sligo, Letterkenny, Dundalk and Athlone/Mullingar, who are not aware that they lived in university gateway cities.

Sligo, Letterkenny, Dundalk, Athlone/Mullingar are not Cities...Gateways yes... therefore what Martin Cullen says stands true.. Waterford IS the only "Gateway City" NOT to have a University

maybe someone should give MJ Nolan a geography lesson :-)

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kano476 wrote:

makes more sense to put it in waterford buti would agree about the dual campus - have the two colleges to come under the south east university as is the way with GMIT and ulster or whatever. and yeah carlow is within commuting distance of maynooth and dublin. waterford isnt.

True, but just cos we're in commuting distance (can mean 70-80 miles these days it seems :rolleyes: ) is no excuse for failure to deliver on services like a university.
It's just so essential the s east gets this, it's a big deciding factor in location of industry, especially ones higher up the value-added chain.
I don't see any reason why they can't do the two-campus thing, with WIT as the main campus.I had to leave the region to go to university- imagine all the money that is lost from the region as a result like accomodation, food etc etc..

Also somebody should give Nolan a lesson on how to be an effective TD as well cos god knows he'll need all the help he can get next Spring!I reckon he well get thought a lesson he won't forget in a hurry by the electorate..