Waterford University discussion

BBM77

If Kilkenny is really in danger of losing it’s animation industry because of a course in Waterford it is fair to say Kilkenny’s animation industry must be on pretty shaky ground. I think a more likely scenario is Cartoon Saloon and Lighthouse Studios move to Dublin, London or California to develop further. Fitzgerald looks to be spouting the usual Waterford should not ever get anything rubbish you get from Kilkenny and Wexford politicians.

friendlyfun

Kilkenny Politicians absolutely love to throw shade on Waterford, every chance they get.

914

But but but "the southeast"

I have always said the southeast is only a thing when pulling services from Waterford or holding Waterford back.

His local "University" expanding surely positive for the "region" nope as it's no Kilkenny.

This lad is the modern day Phil Hogan

imacman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120669943#Comment_120669943

This such a prime example of parish pump politics, I listened to the interview, and he was all over the place. He did mention he objected to the Waterford crystal site purchase, and he was told to be quiet and wait of the strategic plan for the plan for Kilkenny. Why would he object to a badly needed new campus site in Waterford, is that not good for the southeast and only 40 mins down the road from Kilkenny. Also I hate the way the Sue Nunn is so soft on the interview and never calls him out on his BS.

azimuth17

Difficult to understand but not unexpected. A course developed with input from the very industry he references, 25 minutes down the road from his own town. We should remember that County Kilkenny starts on Waterford's doorstep and that people like John Paul Phelan availed of thrid level education in WIT as have thousands of Kilkenny and Wexford students.

As an aside, we should also remember that medics and some politicans in Kilkenny have consistently refused to support 24/7 cardiology in UHW. There is no sense in this stuff, only begrudgery, a local pol trying to make a nme for himself and a continuing obstruction to the deveopment of the university the region needs.

It's mad Ted.

invara

The devolved grant for universities was announced by Simon Harris yesterday. It funds maintenance & campus upgrades- in the austerity years it was cut to bone with Cork and DIT relatively protected.

Anyway, €20m pot for TUs. SETU ranks 3rd overall (behind ATU and TUD), but per head of student is way down, with only TUD behind it. TUD having a brand new Grangegorman campus funded by the Grangegorman Development Agency should not have too many maintenance issues.

It is really upsetting for people in SETU, we were told the merger would knock this kind of treatment on the head and that the Dept would treat us fairly. No sign of it yet.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120770190#Comment_120770190

Anyone who believed things would change were just silly, yes we will see some level of investment but nothing to what is required or to the level of stand alone Uni's.

They were pats on the back last week for SETU being allowed to proceed to the "next phase" for an extra 100 places in nursing, vet medicine and pharma.

The same day UL was announced as the new vet school, SETU had the lowest number of nursing places, we were even placed behind DKIT.

imacman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120770190#Comment_120770190

And to add insult to injury that's a reannouncement of funds that were already given and are being spent at the moment on the dome conversion into offices and a few bits and pieces around campus. And you have to remember that 3,4 million is split between 3 campuses so it's only 1.1 million per campus. The existing main buildings on the Waterford campus have been so neglected through lack of funding over the last 20 years that money would get you a really cheap dome refurbishment and maybe fix a few holes in the roof arounf the place.

invara

Minister Harris has put a call out for research funding for the TU sector. Weird organisation of the fund- so one pot €20m that only Atlantic TU can pitch for, and then €63m for TUD, MTU, TUS and SETU to scramble over. Bizarre. Also, this is another clear indication that Minister Harris pushes Waterford to the back/mid of the TU queue for funding.

We probably need to have a more public discussion about the lack of action on making the TU meaningful. Thoughts anyone?

https://hea.ie/2023/07/06/minister-harris-launches-e83-68m-tu-rise-scheme-to-support-research-capacity-building-and-enterprise-engagement-in-the-technological-university-sector/

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120818471#Comment_120818471

The creation of SETU has been a deeply dishonest and dysfunctional process since its inception. It has been cynically used to promote the leadership ambitions of Simon Harris in Fine Gael and little else. Seats for that party in the south east are all that matter. The failure to complete the purchase of the Glass factory or to build the engineering building which is on the cards for a decade and a half shows the extent of the ill will. Waterford has few friends in this process and our local TDs and senator, except Matt Shanahan, are desperate party hacks and slaves to Dublin. Even Mr Cullinane has been struck totally dumb on all Waterford subjects, including our hospital. He will sacrifice our city, SETU and UHW and all, to the greater political ambitions of Sinn Fein. I would dearly like someone to suggest what might be done next to move things on. We are in a difficult place..

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120818471#Comment_120818471

You forgot two IoTs are also in our funding pot, DKIT and dun laoghaire. So what is the advantage of being a TU if you are in the same pot as an IoT?

azimuth17

https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2023/08/02/tu-dublin-faces-10m-funding-deficit-as-student-numbers-drop-by-almost-2500/

I wonder whats going on there?

Bards

I wonder will SF call for the presidents removal like they did with WIT

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120935992#Comment_120935992

Cullinane was like a dog with a bone back then, a president pushing for stand alone Uni status and forced out the door, at the hands of Waterford representatives, you would have to wonder

invara

Odd little article in the Sunday Times about the PPP bundle 2, saying BAM is one of the bidders for the project. No news on the project really, but I wondered if the mention was a tee-up for the scheme being ditched. Now 2 years since last mentioned on NDFA website.

https://www.ndfa.ie/projects/higher-education-ppp-bundle-2

Valhalla90

This is the real elephant in the room with regards to the next election and the TDs. It’s nothing short of an absolute joke at this stage and pure failure to deliver this project. I have zero faith in it being delivered. It’s already a decade overdue.

azimuth17

What can you say at this stage? Waterford's university ambitions have been kicked to death by all parties. Twenty years of grief. The present minister Simon Harris hs led us up the garden path. Fine Gael should be buried forever in Waterford on this.

Valhalla90

FG are 100% finished in Waterford!

invara

Indeed azimuth17, what can anyone say at this stage?

FG promised a full university in 2011.

Labour destroyed WIT management (led by Ruairi Quinn as minister for education).

FF voted down the Hunt report in 2008/9 halting the university development, also undid the IoT upgrade in 1998, and have done nothing but harm since regaining power in the 2016+ period.

SF led the charge at the PAC, with investigations into WIT management that went nowhere, but ended up weakened the management team in the TU merger negotiations.

No party has a positive vision, hope or even promises for the TU sector, Waterford or is making any promises.

The only play at the moment is embarrassing Harris while still in office by calling him out for promising a gamechanger and delivering an unfunded and complicated merger/consolidation which at this point has actually reducing higher education capacity in the SE by around 5%.

914

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121037096#Comment_121037096

Well now that is depressing!

I think the greatest shame in all this is SF being in opposition and also cheerleading the whole TU debacle.

Unfortunately I can't see any party delivering for Waterford unless one somehow pulls a full minister out of a magic hat.

Fact is any full minister from the SE bar Waterford will be ensuring TU campuses are delivered for their parish, Waterford could suffer badly over the next 10-20 years, as a full minister for here looks way off

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121037727#Comment_121037727

David Cullinane has betrayed his 20,000 voters. Odds on he will be a minister in next government. He will do nothing exceptional for Waterford, because theArd Comhairle will not let him.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121037096#Comment_121037096

He and his local offspring are incapable of embarrassment. They don't do empathy. Time is coming though when Mr Cummins will realise that he is very far out on a very slender board over a very big fire. He has no excuses at this stage. Will be very interesting to see who he blames for lack of delivery. It wil not be his or FG fault. Just watch.

imacman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121033962#Comment_121033962

It's sad to see the press release for this was back in 2018, 5 years later and nothing has happened, and nothing looks like it's going to happen. And this for a building that was first planned to be open in 2013

invara

Two interesting job adverts on the SETU Waterford recruitment Hub- Programme Development Lead for Veterinary Medicine and another for Pharmacy. SETU is pushing on with these new courses- a great sign.

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121107061#Comment_121107061

A School of Pharmacy is straightforward enough, standard lab and classrooms.

With the Vets is the intention to provide vet nursing courses or full vet medicine? The former would be straightforward enough as placements could be done via local practice but for a full vet medicine degree you'll likely need to build a tertiary veterinary hospital especially if you want AVMA accreditation which can be used to generate income from overseas students. That's a big undertaking and will take some time. I note that the Government are talking about offering vet courses via UL and ATU, I can't see them funding all three to run full veterinary degrees but I could be wrong. Perhaps we'll see one regional veterinary hospital shared by the three institutions.

road_high

I think the practical element of the Veterinary course would be provided at teagasc kildalton. Heard something about it a few months ago

BBM77

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/setu-waterford-crystal-purchase-333328

Some progress at least I guess.

JimWinters

Looks like the Crystal site is finally (almost) over the line.

https://www.wlrfm.com/news/setu-waterford-crystal-purchase-333328

I’m not sure why WLR have that photo, from what I’ve heard, Frisby is keeping all of the Cork Rd frontage and SETU are getting land up at the back. Great to see SETU expand, sad to see the greed from Frisby in not selling the landmark part of the site to them. A lost opportunity for the University.

Hopefully funding for buildings follows fast now.

Valhalla90

Still waiting on the engineering building over a decade. Zero faith in Harris to deliver anything for Waterford. FG in general.

azimuth17

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121345340#Comment_121345340

Engineering building on the go since 2009 planning applications. Fourteen years ago. .

Bards

This is just another pretence of doing something without doing anything..this announcement should have been made 18 months ago when SETU was formed to show the governments commitment but instead was announced at the same time as hundreds of millions were given to the existing national universities

We have a university with no HQ and no proper home with the word Waterford removed.. Waterford lost while wexford Kilkenny and carlow will gain